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ROMANISM AND THE REPUBLIC. 



A DISCUSSION kjV TI^^T^URPOSES, ASSUMPTIONS, 

PRINCIPLES /And methods of the 

y/ 
ROMAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY. 



BY 
EEY. ISAAC J. LANSING, M.A., 

A or Worcester, Mass. 

r" I ' WITH AN 

INTRODUCTION 



EEV. LEROY M. AT:RN0N, D.D., 

Late Superintendent of Missio2i£..a£.j:QE Methodist 
Episcopal 




BOSTON : 
ARNOLD PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

CONGREGATIOXAL BuiLDING. 

1890. 






s-f\ ^ 



COPYRIGHT 
ISAAC J. LANSING 

1889. 

4h 4 i^^4 



Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



This volume contains fourteen discourses on Romanism 
AND THE Republic, delivered in the Salem Square Con- 
gregational Church, Worcester, Mass., during the Sum- 
mer and Autumn of 1888. 

From the first until the last of eighteen sermons, which 
were delivered on consecutive Sabbath evenings, public 
interest was general and intense. Throngs of serious 
and thoughtful people crowded the Church, while great 
numbers sought for even standing-room in vain. Calls 
for the publication of the addresses as delivered were 
immediate, and from many quarters. As reported steno- 
graphically, they were printed from week to week in the 
New England Home Journal^ .which, with one other 
notable exception, was' ^"Q only paper that gave them 
currency. ^ ^- ^- ^ 

Repeated requests, at that time and since, that they 
might be preserved in a more permanent form, have 
resulted in the compilation of the present volume. This 
design was not in view originally in their preparation. 
Delivered extemporaneously, and reported as spoken, the 
preacher used no notes except memoranda, which related 
to the numerous books of reference which were taken to 
the pulpit, and from which quotations were read in the 
presence of the congregation. Therefore their style is 
that of popular address, rather than the more finished 
form of deliberate, literaiy execution. Even the rugged 
exclamatory passages, — which perhaps, could only be 
excused or justified by the impassioned earnestness of the 



iv * Author's Preface, 

moment of their utterance, the author has thought best to 
retain, that the people who heard, when the}^ come to read, 
may not miss remembered and often applauded passages. 
For in each sermon of the entire course, a sympathetic 
audience encouraged and sanctioned the speaker's 
utterances by outbursts of assent and commenda- 
tion ; which, it may be, should have been recorded in the 
text, as the valued expression of their sentiments. 

Two discourses to men only, ''On the Romish Confes- 
sional," are, of necessity, omitted from this volume, 
because the citations which they contained from Roman 
Catholic books should not be printed for general reading. 
With this exception the discourses are printed as de- 
livered. 

For the Title, " Romanism and the Republic," the 
author is indebted to an impressive article from the pen 
of M. Leon Bouland, the distinguished ex-priest, in The 
Forum of July, 1888. 

Among authorities, I have depended mostly on Roman 
Catholic text-books and histories, as directly consulted 
by myself, and as cited by reliable authors. Such are 
Fredet's " Modern History," Jenkins' " Judges of Faith," 
Bouvier's " Dissertatio in Sextum Decalogi Prseceptum," 
Dens' "Theology," J. P. Gury's " Moral Theology," 
and the " Index Expurgatorius," among Roman Catholic 
text-books. 

H. C. Lea's " Sacerdotal Celibacy " and Lea's " History 
of the Inquisition," Thompson's " The Papacy and the 
Civil Power," Gladstone's "Vaticanism and the Vatican 
Decrees," Mendham's "Literary Policy of the Romish 
Church," Edgar's " Variations of Popery," — all of which 
are especially rich in quotations from Romish authorities, 
— I have freely quoted. 

I have found help also in the works of distinguished ex- 



Author^s Preface, V 

priests and converts from Rome ; including DeSanctis, on 
"The Confessional," Lord Richard Montagu, "The Sower 
and the Virgin," Rev. Charles Chiniquy, "Fifty Years in 
the Church of Rome," and " The Priest, the Woman and 
the Confessional," Rev. James A. O'Connor, Editor of 
that very valuable and reliable monthly. The Converted 
Catholic^ Father McGlynn's " Sermons and Addresses," 
Wm. Hogan, on " Popery," and others. 

While of books of a more general character, I have 
consulted, among others : " The History of the Public 
School Society of New York," "Our Country " by Dr. 
Josiah Strong, Barnum's "Romanism As It Is,"Beaudry's 
" Spiritual Struggles of a Roman Catholic," Van Dyke's 
" Popery ;" the Documents of the American Evangelical 
Alliance, and the Papers of Dexter A. Hawkins ; together 
with several lives of Loyola, and histories of the Jesuits, 
from both Romish and Protestant sources. 

Tohave filled the margins or appendix with hundreds 
of references to these volumes, would have been easy, but 
this seemed superfluous. 

It is believed that the facts are as alleged ; and while 
errors of statement may be discovered, there are no alleg- 
ations submitted without ample testimony in their favor. 
My thanks are due to many friends who have kindly 
aided me with books and facts. 

For the striking and comprehensive Introduction, the 
Author is indebted to a master of all the facts concerning 
Romanism, Rev. Leroy M. Vernon, D.D., founder, and 
for nearly eighteen years, until 1888, superintendent of 
the Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Italy. 
For most of these years. Dr. Vernon has resided in 
Rome, under the very shadow of the Vatican. There and 
throughout Italy he has given profound study to Roman- 
ism in all its phases, gathering about him into the Church 



vi Author's Preface, 

of God, some of the most extraordinary and able men of 
young Italy, who, under his guidance, forsook, for con- 
science sake, the Papacy which had honored them. For 
weight and trustworthiness, his statements are absolutely 
authoritative. 

With diffidence as to form and style, but with confi- 
dence as to facts and inferences, I submit to a larger 
public this incomplete discussion, as a contribution to the 
demands of a great conflict, in which I confidently hope 
to see Romanism destroyed, the Roman Catholic people 
saved, the American Republic more firmly established, 
and the Kingdom of God triumphantly exalted. 

I. J. LANSING. 

Worcester, May 15, 1889. 



PEEFACE TO LATEST EDITION. 

The unexpected favor with which this effort to meet a 
living question has been met, and the fact that the ninth 
thousand of the volume is in press, though less than a 
year has elapsed since its publication, is a cause of pro- 
found gratitude to the author. 

An Index has been added to the present edition, which 
will greatly enhance its value to all readers. 

The recent Centennial Anniversary of the Roman Catho- 
lic Church at Baltimore has given occasion for an expres- 
sion of the latest word that Romanism has to utter on the 
themes that most concern us as Americans. A few quota- 
tions have been given in an Appendix which show the 
spirit and animus of this gathering, and that the Church 
of Rome is, as she herself boasts, semper eadem, — 
always the same. 

I. J. LANSING. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGB 

Preface, c 3 

Author's Preface, « 11 

CHAPTER I. 
Eeasons for Considering this Question « 17 

CHAPTER II. 
The Jesuits and their Purpose « . .... 39 

CHAPTER III. 
The Pope the Enemy of Civil and Religious Liberty. ...... 61 

CHAPTER rV^ 
Romanism Antagonistic to the Constitution and the Laws. 87 

CHAPTER V. 

Romanism Antagonistic to the Constitution and the Laws 

No. II 120 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Purpose of Romanism to Destroy our Public Schools . . 147 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Purpose of Romanism to Destroy our Public Schools : 

Their Alleged and Actual Reasons, No. II 181 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Purpose of Romanism to Destroy our Public Schools, 

No. III. 219 



viii Table of Contents, 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Morality which Romanism would Teach American 

Youth 253 

CHAPTER X. 

Shall Romanism Teach a Pagan Morality to American 

Youth? 286 

CHAPTER XI. 

Shall Romanism Teach a Pagan Morality to American 

Youth? No. II 317 

CHAPTER XII. 
Further Aspects of Parochial Schools o . , . . . . 345 

CHAPTER Xin. 
The Romish Confessional : What it Is, and What it Does. . . 374 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Romish Confessional : What it Is, and What it Does, 

No. II 407 

Concluding Note 435 



INTEODUOTION. 



A great theme here invites the reader's attention. 
Macaiilay says : "The polity of the Church of Rome is 
the very masterpiece of human wisdom. . . . The expe- 
rience of twelve hundred eventful years, the ingenuity 
and patient care of forty generations of statesmen, have 
improved that polity to such perfection, that, among the 
contrivances which have been devised for deceiving and 
controlling mankind, it occupies the highest place.'* The 
animating soul of that polity is the Pope, who from Rome 
enforces it throughout the world, with a refined astuteness, 
hereditary and cumulative, unequalled in human history. 
The many-tongued Catholic masses, imbued with Romanist 
doctrines, and invested by that polity as by the shirt of 
Nessus, with the Pope at their head, constitute living 
Romanism, aggressive, imperious, and relentless as ever. 

This vast power, besides assuming and exercising the 
most blasphemous religious prerogatives, for more than a 
thousand years, has dispensed crowns and dethroned 
kings, absolved peoples from allegiance to their rightful 
sovereigns, or sanctioned their bondage under tyrants, 
according to its own pleasure or caprice ; nor has it ever 
formally or impliedly abandoned any of its enormous 
pretensions. There is not a people in the Old World 
whose peace it has not disturbed, whose rulers it has not 
embroiled, the administration of whose government it has 
not embarrassed, whose rights it has not usurped, and 
whose soil it has not drenched with blood. Its arrogant 
and hoary hierarchy early began from the Vatican to 
project its all- pervading system over our country, now by 
gigantic institutions commands centres of power through- 
out the land, has a large and rapidly increasing consti- 
tuency among our people, and daily becomes more 
pronounced and menacing, faithful to its own tradi- 
tions. 



X Introduction. 

The relations of Romanism to the Republic, therefore, 
form a subject of supreme importance and of burning 
actuality, most urgently commending itself to the prompt 
attention of every citizen, to the dispassionate considera- 
tion especially of the patriot, the journalist, the teacher, 
the moralist, the divine, and the statesman, as the makers 
of public opinion. Wherefore nothing could be more 
opportune than Mr. Lansing's vigorous volume ; than the 
weighty and fearless terms with which he eloquently 
invokes the public attention and developes his absorbing 
'argument. This book is secured a very high practical 
value by the judicious limitation and selection of the 
points to be treated, and by their ample and triumphantly 
conclusive elaboration within modest limits. 

The vastness of Romanism, with its debatable features 
and history, has often proven a snare to authors, espe- 
cially the more ambitious. Any portraj'al of Romanism 
always encounters two serious preliminary embarrass- 
ments: (1) it requires a statement and discussion so 
extended, that the public has neither the time nor the 
patience to follow them to the end ; (2) it involves saying 
much that is harsh and harrowing to urbane natures, and 
much more quite unpresentable to decent ears or pure 
eyes. Hence there always remains of it, as of '*the dark 
continent," a vast breadth and bulkiness unexplored and 
unknown, and an abysmal nastiness never fully uncovered 
or duly understood. By a skill of his own, our author 
has partially obviated these difficulties, and within the 
lids of a current volume has compressed a bold character- 
ization and a perfectly convincing argument. Such is 
the nervous st3^1e, the cogent reasoning, the bow-like 
force of the cumulative evidence, that, though the 
points discussed be relatively few, and the argument 
comparatively brief, the irrevocable conclusion smites 
like a Trojan arrow, and unerringly pierces the Achilles' 
heel of the Papal Colossus. 

The core of this work may be expressed in a single 
sentence : Rome's domineering imperialism, with Jesuit- 
ism its power behind the throne, together striving to 
centralize '* all the powers on earth in the bosom of one 
master of souls " : its essential incompatibility and inevit- 



Introduction. xi 

able unending antagonism with the Constitution and laws 
of our country, its relentless crusade against our public 
schools, its stealthy undoing of morality, and finally, 
its absolute irreconcilability with Protestantism — thus 
Romanism is irremediably hostile, politically and relig- 
iously, to our Republican Commonwealth. 

Our author has an ideal temper and method for contro- 
versy ; with indisputable facts, keen analysis, unimpeach- 
able authorities, and irrefragable proofs, he advances 
exhaustively, never losing his rational balance, never 
stooping to invective nor tarrying to amuse : with sus- 
tained acumen and intensifying logical force, he bears 
down on the false and foreign system, and, like the mills 
of the gods, grinds to powder. Nor is the work impaired 
by any extravagance in statement or illustration, in form 
or coloring, in matters of fact, or in cases of opinion. 

What is to-day observable and appreciable of Popery 
in its oldest realms and highest seats, even in its sanctum 
sanctorum^ fully justifies the solemn indictment. After 
nearly eighteen years' residence in Rome, and familiar 
contact with Romanism throughout Italy, the writer bears 
witness that our author's testimony on all points is 
undeniably true. Perfectly true, indeed ; but not yet 
the whole of the truth. The portraiture of Popery, found 
in her own records, and colored by her own hand, is 
darker, gloomier still. 

The Canon Law, the undisputed, fundamental code of 
Romanism, is utterly incompatible with the Constitution 
and laws of our Republic, as witness the following leading 
provisions, gleaned therefrom by Dr. G. F. Von Schulte, 
Professor of Canonical Law at Prague, viz. : — 

"I. All human power is from evil, and must therefore be 
standing under the Pope. 

"II. The temporal powers must act unconditionally, in ac- 
cordance with the orders of the spiritual. 

"III. The Church is empowered to grant, or to take away, 
any temporal possession. 

"IV. The Pope has the right to give countries and nations 
which are non-Catholic to Catholic regents, who can reduce 
them to slavery. 

" V. The Pope can makes slaves of those Christian subjects 
whose prince or ruling power is interdicted by the Pope. 



xii Introduction. 

•* VI. The laws of the Church, concerning the liberty of the 
Church and the Papal power, are based upon divine inspira- 
tion. 

"VII. The Church has the right to practice the uncondi- 
tional censure of books. 

" VIII. The Pope has the right to annul State laws, treaties, 
constitutions, etc. ; to absolve from obedience thereto, as soon 
as they seem detrimental to the rights of the Church, or those 
of the clergy. 

"IX. The Pope possesses the right of admonishing, and, if 
needs be, of punishing the temporal rulers, emperors, and kings, 
as well as of drawing before the spiritual forum any case in 
which a mortal sin occurs. 

" X. Without the consent of the Pope no tax or rate of any 
kind can be levied upon a clergyman, or upon any church what- 
soever. 

"XI. The Pope has the right to absolve from oaths, and 
obedience to the persons and the laws of the princes whom he 
excommunicates. 

"XIII. The Pope can annul all legal relations of those in 
ban, especially their marriages. 

"XIII. The Pope can release from every obligation, oath, 
vow, either before or after being made. 

"XIV. The execution of Papal commands for the persecu- 
tion of heretics causes remission of sins. 

"XV. He who kills one that is excommunicated is no mur- 
derer in a legal sense." 

After the above, as well expect concord between light 
and darkness, as between Romanism and the Republic. 
Yet the foregoing utterances are but a tithe of the like 
assumptions to be found in twenty folio volumes. 

Within the last week Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore 
has posed before the country as an advocate of religious 
toleration, and the press has made much of it far and 
wide. What swain-like simplicity ! Now one of two 
things : either the Cardinal is sincere, and therefore an- 
tagonistic to the principles, traditions, and usages of his 
Church, and doomed finally to recant and reform ; or he 
simply plays a part, winked at by the Pope, in order to 
ingratiate himself and his Church with the people, and to 
smooth the way for new encroachments. This dilemma is 
amply corroborated by the following paragraphs from the 
Syllabus of Pius IX., issued Dec. 8tli, 1864, and subse- 
quently by the Decree of Infallibility confirmed as truths 
eternal and equal in authority with the Decalogue, viz. : 



Introduction. xiii 

*'The State has not the right to leave every man free to pro- 
fess and embrace whatever religion he shall deem true. 

"It has not the riuht to enact that the ecclesiastical power 
shall require the permission of the civil power in order to the 
exercise of its authority. 

"It has not the right to treat as an excess of power, or as 
usurping the rights of princes, anything that the Roman Pon- 
tiffs or JEcumenical Councils have done. 

'*It has not the right to adopt the conclusions of a National 
Church Council, unless confirmed by the Pope. 

"It has not the right of establishing a National Church sep- 
arate from the Pope. 

"It has not the right to the entire direction of public schools. 

"It has not the right to assist subjects who wish to abandon 
monasteries or convents." 

Then in the same Syllabus the rights and powers of the 
Church are affirmed thus, viz. : 

"She has the right to require the State not to leave every man 
free to profess his own religion. 

"She has the right to exercise her power without the per- 
mission or consent of the State. 

"She has the right to prevent the foundation of any National 
Church not subject to the authority of the Roman Pontiff. 

"She has the right to deprive the civil authority of the entire 
government of public schools. 

"She has the right of perpetuating the union of Church and 
State. 

"She has the right to require that the Catholic religion shall 
be the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all others. 

"She has the right to prevent the State from granting the 
public exercise of their own worship to persons immigrating 
into it. 

"She has the power of requiring the State not to permit free 
expression of opinion." 

It is needless to say that the history of Romanism 
shows the oft-repeated application of all the foreojoing 
claims and principles. The present Pontiff, Leo XIII., 
in a letter to the Bishop of Perigueux, July 27, 1884, ex- 
plicitly confirms the foregoing, thus : "The teaching given 
by this Apostolic See, whether contained in the Syllabus 
and other Acts of our illustrious predecessor, or in our 
own Encyclical Letters, has given clear guidance to the 
faithful as to what should be their thoughts and their con- 
duct in the midst of the difficulties of times and events. 
There they will find a rule for the direction of their minds 



xiv Introduction. 

and their works." Again, in his Encyclical of 1885, he 
approves the Syllabus, repudiates the idea that "each man 
should be allowed freely to think on whatever subject he 
pleases," and condemns any government in which "every 
one will be allowed to follow the religion he prefers." 

Some years ago, Leo XIII. addressed an elaborate let- 
ter to three distinguished Cardinals of his Court, announ- 
cing his purpose soon to open to literary men the Vatican 
Library, on conditions to be established. Under cover of 
this rare token of papal liberality the Pope also invited 
their Eminences to take into consideration the having the 
history of the world re-written, since, as he alleged, the 
histories extant deal incorrectly and prejudicially with the 
history of the Church. The work was to be facilitated, 
and accuracy promoted, by the treasures the new histo- 
rians would find in the manuscripts and tomes of the Vat- 
ican. The expulsion of Swinton's History from the Bos- 
ton schools may be a sequence from the Pope's new 
criteria : others will follow. The Papacy, professedly 
in vicegerent command of mankind for fifteen centuries, 
has ever been making its own and guiding the world's his- 
tory, filling the earth with protected fraternities of stu- 
dents, writers and copyists, making iniquisition into uni- 
versal literature, changing and correcting much, destroying 
more by her Index ExpurgatoriuSy condemning books and 
damning their authors, adorning the good with her impe- 
rial imprimatur, and their authors with academic degrees 
and patents of knighthood, burning wayward thinkers and 
writers at the stake with fagots of their own volumes, for 
ages stimulating and fostering, like a divine Maecenas, 
the best genius of the Church, and magisterially dominat- 
ing the pen as the sword and the sceptre, and after all is 
still unhappy of her achievement and of the writing that 
is written. Alas, alike for fallible history and infallible 
Pope ! The new pontifical proposal is a mystery of cun- 
ning and courage. The opening of the library was a de- 
lusion ; the recast history will remain a project. Both are 
signs not to be forgotten. Leo XIII. sees Romanism con- 
demned by history ; more still is it by the gospel and civ- 
ilization. 

The momentous, the perilous fact is the public indiffer- 



Introduction. 



XV 



ence to the insidious advances and encroachments of this 
despotic and mighty medievalism. While it is quietly in- 
terweaving itself with the national life, and strategically 
preparing the basis for its future self assertion, contentious 
action and usurpations, almost no one takes heed or offers 
a serious obstruction. Were any one indeed openly and 
vigorously to controvert its character, its progress and 
grasping for power, among the Catholic population of our 
large cities, the result would be mob violence. There, and 
on this question, free speech is the ante-war free speech 
south of Mason and Dixon's line. The new thraldom, 
like the old bondage, requires to be let alone. The public 
peril is neglected for personal aims. Pride, pleasure and 
luxury, like a leash of hounds, bay on the heels of gratifi- 
cation. Vanity parades, ambition climbs, business hastes 
to be rich. The press panders, the politicians trim, the 
preachers doze : the priests sow tares. The country 
drifts, drifts, and drifts. Meanwhile duty commands 
every voice to cry aloud and spare not, the pen and the 
press to unite in impetuous sustained appeal, enforced by 
the priceless interests of our imperilled civil and religious 
liberties and institutions. When the Jesuit assassin 
stabbed Fra Paolo Sarpi of Venice, to end his too liberal 
and evangelical writing, and fled, leaving his weapon 
sticking in the wound, Sarpi himself plucked the bribed 
stiletto from his flesh, and holding it aloft, said : '* The 
pen of the Papacy ! " Contrariwise the pen is the sword 
of Protestantism, civil and religious, for holy war against 
Popery. "Awake, O sword, against" the deceiver and the 
destroyer ; "put up thyself into thy scabbard " only when 
the people are delivered by knowledge ; recognizing that 
EoMANiSM AND THE REPUBLIC are irreconcilablc opposites ; 
that the Tiara and our starry Banner are divorced as the 
poles, incongruous as the Roman wolf and the American 
eagle. 

LEROY M. VERNON. 

Syracuse, N, Y., April 30th, 1889. 



ROMANISM AND THE REPUBLIC. 



Sermon E. 

REASONS FOR CONSIDERING THE RELATION OF 
ROMANISM TO THE REPUBLIC. 



" AgaiQ the word of the Lord came unto me, saying: Son of 
man, speak to the children of tliy people, and say unto them, 
When 1 bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land 
take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman; If 
when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trum- 
pet and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of 
the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take 
him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the 
sound of the trumpet and took not warning, his blood shall be 
upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. 
But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trum- 
pet, and the people be not warned; If the sword come, and take 
any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity: 
but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand." — Ezekiel 
33: 1-6. 

The picture in this text is better understood in 
Eastern lands than it can be in this country. 
Many cities there are located on lofty heights, 
from which a wide survey can be made of the 
surrounding country. They are so located for 
purposes of defence ; for where enemies are likely 
to come in like a flood, and wandering^ hordes 
to make sudden incursions, such situations are 
highly favorable to safety. The watchman, placed 
on the walls, scans the country far and wide, 
and marks every sio'n which would suo:o:est the 



18 Romanism and the Hepuhlic, 

presence of a coming foe. A cloud of smoke in the 
distance, rolling up from burning villages, attracts 
his watchful eye. The dust which rises above the 
plain, marking the march of an advancing host, is to 
him an occasion for alarm. The ajlint of the sun- 
shine on distant, moving weapons, leads him to call 
the defenders to their posts, and the throng of terri- 
fied villagers, fleeing from their homes to find pro- 
tection under the walls of the town, alike attests the 
need of watchfulness, and confirms and justifies his 
warnins:. 

He does not wait until the foemen are thundering 
at the gates, before he announces to the garrison the 
dansrer that threatens. Should he do so, he mio^ht 
justly be judged a traitor, in the pay of the enemy. 

So, when God's watchman, guarding the dearest 
interests of church and state, sees rising from other 
lands the clouds of desolation which betoken the ruin 
wrought by tyranny ; when he marks the steady 
asfofression of the enemies of truth and man : hears 
their threatenings and sees their weapons ; when he 
observes the fleeing millions who, running away from 
oppression, seek in our freer government a refuge 
from their tyrants, he cannot wait until the foot of 
the foeman is on the threshold of our gates, his hand 
on our throats, and his decrees proclaimed in our 
market-places, before he sounds the alarm. 

It is his duly to give the warning of approaching 
danger seen afar, and thus to protect the liberties 
over which he watches, rather than delay to sound 
his call to stand on guard, until these priceless 



lioinanism and the Hepuhlic, 19 

treasures are forever lost. Such I conceive to be 
the duty of the Christian minister who observes the 
doings of the Romish cliurch in other lands, the 
principles which have moved it, the metliods which 
it has pursued, and the threats, ah'eady taking form, 
which it is making against the Protestant Christianity 
and the free o'overnment of the United States of 
America. Our responsibility is not merely to the 
present hour, but to coming ages and future times, — 
to those generations yet to be, who must now be 
protected in our persons, and defended b}^ our 
fidelity. In warning you of the spirit and aggres- 
sions of Romanism, I naturally seek to justify my 
purpose by reasons which I submit to your calm con- 
sideration and enlightened judgment. 

Why do I consider this subject ? and why do I deem 
it my duty to God and to man, to the present and to 
the future, to brins^ this matter to the attention of 
this congregation and community? 

1. Among the negative reasons why I consider 
Romanism and the Republic the first is this : I do 
not do it to incite religious animosity. The various 
branches of the Christian Church should cultivate 
amity, peace and brotherhood. We cannot too 
earnestly deprecate the spirit which awakens needless 
religious contention against bodies which hold approx- 
imately the common faith. 

But, on the other hand, shall religion be a 
cloak for confessed evils, forbidding us to take 
account of them because they assume a religious 
covering ? Under the pretence of religion, the 



20 Ro'manism and the Hejpuhlic. 

grossest crimes have been committed against tlie 
state, against society, and against the faith. It 
ouglit not to shelter the immoralities of Mormonism, 
that Mormonism is defined as a system of religious 
belief. Is polygamy any more moral because it 
affects to be a religious ordinance and duty? By no 
means. Komanism can claim for its policy no ex- 
emption from attention or censure because it is a 
religion, any more than can any other ism. 

If it is true that under the guiso of the religion of 
Romanism a great conspiracy against liberty and 
truth is sheltered, it is simply fidelity to the highest 
obligations, and not religious animosity, that leads us 
to tear away the veil and show the designs which 
threaten our country's welfare and the progress of 
mankind. 

2. Neither do I consider this subject in order to 
excite religious prejudice against any church or class 
of citizens. Fraternity, peace, goodwill, and a dis- 
position to abide by rules of fairness, should animate 
all our relations toward our fellow-men, either in the 
church or state. But prejudice is the offspring of 
thouo^htlessness and io^norance. When truth de- 
mands that we should take a strongly antagonistic 
attitude toward any evil, that attitude cannot be 
spoken of as the result of prejudice, I purpose 
rather to diminish prejudice by increasing intelli- 
gence ; I would throw light on the methods of the 
Romish church, on its history and its intentions; I 
would cause those who are now ignorantly preju- 
diced to become intelligently opposed ; and so would 



Ro^nanisTii and the Republic, 21 

dissipate, rather than create, intolerant and ignorant 
antagonism. 

3. Certainly, it is far from my intention, in this 
discussion, to arouse or increase religious bigotry — 
that spirit which assumes that none are Christians 
except ourselves, which regards all others as in the 
w^rong, which cannot see or tolerate anything out- 
side of the narrow line of its own denomination. Of 
bigotry there is already too much, and I w^ould that 
it mio^ht diminish till there were none remainino:. 
But by this I do not mean to suggest that all creeds 
and opinions are equally true, nor to debar us from 
the definition and defence of our principles. JS^or 
are dangerous ideas and practices in the province of 
religion to be exempt from examination, any more 
than dangerous ideas in morals or in politics. Big- 
otry may be increased by superstition, and often has 
been fostered by forbidding free discussion ; but the 
diffusion of information on matters of common con- 
cern, in a fair spirit and by the citation of undoubted 
authorities, cannot nurse bigotry. 

4. Still less do I discuss the subject of Romanism 
AND thf: Republic in order to awaken controversy 
for the sake of mere controversy. We are taught in 
the Holy Scriptures to " follow peace with all men ;" 
and yet are bidden to "contend earnestly for the 
faith that was once delivered to the saints." There 
are worse evils than controversy, much as acrimoni- 
ous disputation is to be deprecated. The nation that 
is not ready to contend for its liberties hardlj'' de- 
serves them, and will surely lose them. The church 



22 Romanism and the Hepuhlic, 

which values truth so lightly that it will not in de- 
fence of the same put forth the utmost argument and 
persuasion, creating enlightenment by the champion- 
ship of truth and the challenging of error, will soon 
cease to be respected, and will presently cease to res- 
pect itself. While, therefore, I neither fear nor court 
controversy, and certainly do not desire to awaken 
it for its own sake, I would gladly welcome it in be- 
half of truth, if thereby the clouds might be dissipated 
and the dano^ers averted which bans; over and threaten 
our beloved country. And I may add, that this was 
the spirit of early Christianity in the primitive 
church. The Epistles to the Galatians, to the Colos- 
sians and to the Corinthians, are controversial epis- 
tles, defending the Gospel, protecting the church, 
challenoino- false teachers, and assailino^ immoral 
and ungodly doctrine. The spirit of biblical 
controversy is the spirit w4iich we would cultivate, 
and the endeavor we make is made with the same 
intent. Far be it from me to dispute the genuine 
piety and the deep devotion of many of the adher- 
ents of the church of Rome. I shall not assume that 
its members at large, and its priests in general, 
knowingly hold and propagate error. But because it 
demands universal and absolute allegiance, I am 
bound to examine the basis of its claims, before I 
accept or reject them. You and I are willing that 
Presbyterians shall be Presbyterians, that Method- 
ists shall be Methodists, that Episcopalians shall be 
Episcopalians, and so on of all Christians whose faith 
is a biblical faith. And they are equally willing that 



Romanisw. and the Republic, 23 

we shall be Congregationalists. But Rome recog- 
nizes only heresy in every form of religion but its 
own ; demands universal submission ; endeavors to 
incite the fiercest hatred against all other forms of 
belief, and strives to overpower and destroy, by all 
her vast and mighty machinery, and by the anathe- 
mas of the pope, the persecution of the civil power, 
and the hori'ors of the Inquisition, w^hich they still 
justify, if they cannot practice. 

Before proceeding further, I desire to answer a 
question that may arise in your minds, why I speak 
on Romanism and the Republic, instead of upon 
Catholicism and the Republic. The reason is very 
clear, and one that should ever be kept in mind. I 
say Romanism, instead of Catholicism, because the 
Romish church is not the Catholic church. What 
is the Catholic church? The meaning of the term 
determines. Catholic means general, universal, the 
one all-embracing church. It includes all who hold 
to our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth. 
Every Christian on the face of the earth belongs to 
the Catholic church ; but, thank God ! not to the 
Romish church. You are Catholics because you 
are Christians. The devoted worshipper of the Lord 
Jesus in any denomination is a Catholic, because a 
Christian. But Rome is not the uniA^ersal church; 
Romanism is the Latin church, a branch of the 
church of Christ, we may allow, but not the whole, 
as she falsely and impudently claims. To the arro- 
gance of that claim, it is extremely foolish and weak 
for us to bow. 



24 Romanism and the Republic. 

I shall never call them Catholic, only as I would 
say Methodist Catholic, Congregational Catholic, 
because they are not Catholics, and I advise you to 
more carefully define the true Catholic idea, and to 
call Romanism by its right name. 

Secondly — I call them Romanists because they are 
the Roman church. Its headship is at Rome ; the 
ruler whom it regards as infallible, who presides 
over and directs it with absolute authority, is an 
Italian by residence, a Roman, and a foreigner. 
And not merely is its head a Roman, but, moreover, 
the church is essentially Italian, and has been for 
centuries, in the preponderance of governing ideas, in 
the policy which shapes its course, in the diplomacy 
of its management. Sometimes, and justly, it is 
called Ultra montane, which, centuries ago meant, as 
it now means, a church governed by priests who find 
their homes south of the Alps. We need only to 
appeal to the history of the Romish church, to 
demonstrate the entire suitability of defining it as 
Romanism in its relation to the Republic, and its 
relation to the world ; though the time is coming 
when to keep that name even, modern, regenerated 
Rome, will demand that it become a regenerated 
church. 

Having thus cleared the way, and negatively 
defined my purpose, having also defined distinctly 
the Romish church as non-Catholic, I now desire 
to give you positive and direct reasons why I take 
up this discussion, and as a watchman who is 
responsible to God, to the church, to the Republic 



Romanism and the Republic, 25 

and to the world, ask your attention to the threaten- 
ing attitude and dangerous assumptions of Romanism 
in our country. l.Why do I not take up and con- 
sider the relation of other churches to the Republic? 
That would be appropriate, if there were anything in 
their relation startling, threatening, or especially 
suggestive ; but no such fact in their history exists. 
The attitude of the Romish church toward the 
Republic is totally different from that of any other 
church. Suppose the inquiry were raised, What is 
the attitude of the Baptist church toward the Repub- 
lic? The instant and universal answer from all 
Christian denominations would be, The Baptist 
church is an essential and thoroughly loyal portion 
of the nation. If the question were raised. What is 
the attitude of Methodism toward the Republic? we 
should at once reply, that Methodism was a constitu- 
ent and vital part of the life of the Republic, loyal to 
the core to the principles of American liberty. 

But we consider Romanism in its relation to the 
Republic, rather than any of the other churches, 
because its attitude is well known to be questionable, 
doubtful, and, as we shall show, hostile. 

2. It acknowledges as its head a ruler who claims 
the right to dictate to all rulers ; who ii:^^ists on his 
supremacy over and above all civil powers, execu- 
tive and legislative ; and who holds this theory of 
his own powers, not as a theory merely, but who for 
centuries has carried it out in practice, to the utmost 
limits of his ability. Every Roman Catholic digni- 
tary, from the Pope down to the Bishop, by creed 



26 Romanism and the Repuhlic. 

and by oath, recognizes the Pope with an allegiance 
superior to that which he pays to any other power. 
And if the Romish power is not at present in avowed 
hostility, in open antagonism to the government of 
the United States, it is only because it chooses at 
present to be pacific ; while really, as I shall show 
hereafter, holding an attitude of unqualified suprem- 
acy over us in its claims and in its purposes. 

I have already said that Rome claims the right to 
control civil governments as no other church does. 
This claim of the Papacy I shall hereafter define in 
its own words. Recent and remarkable illustrations 
of this claim, in actual practice, are now before your 
minds. It is within the past year that, under the 
sanction of the Roman Catholic clergy, members of 
the English Parliament in this city have been hon- 
ored with processions and public meetings, while 
they expatiated to the people on the wrongs and 
woes of Ireland, and the desire of the people for 
Home Rule, and explained the plans by which they 
hoped to achieve it. Yast sums of money have been 
collected to further their designs, and the plans of 
campaign on which they were working, well-known 
throughout all the land, received general and enthu- 
siastic approval. But lo ! a few weeks since, under 
the manipulations of diplomatists at Rome, there has 
issued from the Vatican a rescript, as it is called, of 
Leo XIII, condemn ino^ the action of the clers^v, the 
agitator, the statesman and members of parliament, 
and forbidding them to further the civil policy which 
they have heretofore pursued for the emancipation of 



Hoinanism and the Republic. 27 

Ireland from Eno'lisli rule. What is the result? A 
murmur of resistance and disapprobation from a few 
bishops and archbishops ; a fiery protest from a few 
leading agitators : and behold ! immediately follow- 
ing, almost absolute and universal submission ! Arch- 
bishops, bishops, and clergy, statesmen, orators, agi- 
tators, all, under the threat of Roman displeasure, 
quietly submit to the dictation of the Pope. Now 
the question is not whether their methods of civil 
procedure were right; or whether the Pope, in cen- 
suring them, is on the right side of this political con- 
troversy. The real question is simply this : Has the 
Pope the right, has he the power to dictate to Roman 
Catholics in Ireland and America and throughout 
the world, what shall be their political methods, and 
how they shall plan and execute their political cam- 
paigns? I feel called upon at this juncture, in the 
name of liberty and manhood, to protest in favor of 
the protection of Romanists against the interference 
and domination of the Pope. 

A farther illustration, in a more individual 
case and in the realm of personal opinion, of 
the practical interference of the Papacy in the civil 
allegiance of its subjects, is had in the case of Dr. 
McGlynn. Months ago, on the platform of a public 
meeting, I saw this distinguished priest* of the 
Roman Catholic church. Modest and aifable in his 
bearing, eloquent in his words, and vigorous and free 
in his thoughts, he seemed to me at the time to be a 
representative of the best element in the Roman 
Catholic church. Subsequent to that time, acting 



28 Romanism and the Hepublic, 

within his undoubted rights as a citizen, guaranteed 
to him by the constitution and the laws, he chose to 
further certain political ideas which seemed to him in 
harmony with sound principle. Forthwith, this citi- 
zen of America is cited to appear in Rome to answer 
for his political opinions. He dreads to go, know- 
ing too well the means which the mother-church 
employs to secure the subordination of such of her 
sons as dare to think for themselves. Declinino^ to 
go, and only affirming his rights as a free Ameri- 
can citizen, he is put under the ban of his superiors 
and deprived of the church for which he had labored 
and sacrificed so heroically, and to-day is an outcast 
priest, solely and only because he chose to adhere 
to his own private judgment in matters secular and 
political. If the Eomish church, by rescript, can 
destroy the political plans of Irish leaders, if by cen- 
sure it can dictate political views to one of its dis- 
tinguished priests in America, obviously, it both 
claims and exercises the right to the same jurisdic- 
tion in every country and in every case. 

3. The third reason why I consider the relations 
of Romanism and the Republic is, that Romanism 
hates and fiercely attacks institutions especially dear 
to us in this country, and which have been associ- 
ated with all its prosperity from the beginning of our 
history. Our fathers believed that public education 
was essential to sound political and social morality; 
and alongside the church, and as its offspring, they 
planted the public school. This system of public 
education has made, of those who come under its 



Romanism and the Republic. 29 

benign influence, the most enlightened citizens of the 
most enlightened state in the world ; and it may be 
truly said, that the results of public education in 
the United States furnish one of the most strikino* 
illustrations of the wisdom of the founders of our 
government. But Rome is the sworn foe of our 
public schools. The most violent language in oppo- 
sition to them is used, under the sanction of her pre- 
lates, by her writers, secular and clerical. Xot only 
in America, but in Ireland, where the British gov- 
ernment has tried to diffuse the benefits of public 
education, they exhibit the same hostility. 

The national schools of Ireland, carefully abstaining 
from o^ivino' relio'ious instruction, but affordinor facili- 
ties for such instruction at designated hours, accord- 
ing to the preference of the parents, have been met 
by the fiercest antagonism on the part of the Roman 
power. 

Great was my surprise, when a distinguished and 
highly educated Roman Catholic assured me that, in 
his opinion, it were better that the children of Ire- 
land should grow up in densest ignorance, rather 
than that they should attempt to get their education 
in the national schools. The determined efforts of 
Rome to undermine our public school system are 
already bearing apparent fiuit. Undertaking to 
falsify history, in order to build up ecclesiasticism, but 
recently they have demanded and have secured the 
explusion of certain histories from the public schools 
of Boston, and the dismissal of a teacher who dared 
to teach something contrary to their supremacy and 



30 Romanism and the Republic. 

to their preferences. In a Connecticut city, not 
long since, one of the young hidy teachers in the 
High School, having, in a historical exercise, stated 
that the Roman Catholic church just prior to the 
Reformation sold indulgences, which encouraged the 
people to commit sin, was only able to retain her 
place as teacher in the school by signing a retraction 
or apology prepared by a Roman Catholic priest ! 

Has it comes to this, that the Romish church shall 
dictate that only such books shall be studied in our 
public schools as comport with her opinion of her- 
self, and her desire to establish a universal tyranny? 
And are we, the oftspring of the English Reformers, 
to bend the knee and 3'ield? God forbid ! 

Remember, freemen, and Protestants of America, 
that where Rome has had the privilege of educating 
the people, more illiteracy prevails, in proportion to 
the population, than in any other European state. 
The Roman states, Italy and Spain, in their abject- 
ness and almost universal ignorance, bear witness to 
this fact. Liberty of conscience and freedom of the 
press, dear and precious privileges of American free- 
men, have been pronounced by the highest author- 
ity of the Romish church, a pest and a delirium, and 
the Romish church, when the Pope says that, is bound 
to believe it, as if it were the very word of God. 
Surely, if these priceless privileges of conscience and 
discussion are of right free, we cannot too soon start 
up in resistance to the power which denies that 
freedom, and would put us in bondage to the blas- 
phemous assumptions of mediaeval tyranny. 



Romanism and the Republic, 31 

4. My fourth reason for considering Romanism in 
its relation to the Republic is, that in the Romish 
Church is so large a poition of the criminal and dan- 
gerous classes. A distinguished ex-priest, Leon 
Bouland, in the July number oi \\\q Forum, calls our 
attention to the fact that, in the city of New York, 
probably seventy-five per cent, of the criminals are 
members and adherents to the Romish Catholic 
Church. And yet some of you, being kindly disposed, 
will say : Does not the Romish Church exercise a re- 
straining influence over these dangerous classes, and, 
is not that influence beneficial in helping the commu- 
nity to keep such people in subjection ? It may be 
true, we will not deny it, that the Romish Church has 
some power of restraint over these dangerous classes ; 
but will you not also bear in mind that the attitude of 
the Romish Church toward these people makes it 
almost impossible for Protestants to get near them, in 
order to teach them morality and improve their con- 
dition? She takes the whole responsibility for them. 
And mark this : these people who constitute our dan- 
gerous and criminal classes in America, are the 
offspring of those communities where Romanism for 
centuries has had an absolute sway. They come 
from countries where this church has dominated their 
ancestors for many generations with unresisted 
authority. They are, to that degree, the product of 
Romanism. Moreover, it ought not to be forgotten that 
the church which makes and which controls so lara^e 
a proportion of the des[)erate people of society, holds 
over them such an al)solute sway from superstition, 



32 Romanism and the Republic. 

the dread of excommunication, and from prejudice, 
that she can handle them at her will, and by that 
means make them her agents and instruments for 
whatever work she chooses to set them about. I have 
not said that the Romish Church desires or will 
launch this terrific enginery against the life of the 
nation. The probability of that you shall determine 
later, when we have more carefully studied its prin- 
ciples. But I do say, that this army of the immoral, 
the dangerous and the criminal, is so abjectly under 
the power of Rome, and so sworn to obedience to the 
Pope, that if she shall choose to direct them in any 
course, they, on their part, are likely to obe3^ Will 
she so choose ? 

5. In answer, in the fifth place, I beg you to 
remember, that already Rome acts in this country as 
a political unit. These dangerous elements, with 
all other elements of the Papal power, in their civil 
capacity, are wielded by the church as an adjunct of 
a single political party. You and I allow the right 
of every man to select his political party, and to vote 
as he pleases ; but is it not a singular fact, that the 
Romish Church alone, of all the churches, is politi- 
cally solid ? The other great political party in this 
country has tried to secure the allegiance of a por- 
tion of the Roman Catholic voters, but has tried 
with indifferent and ill success. They who manipu- 
late the Romish vote do not intend to have it 
divided. They care nothing for the party with 
which it acts, nothing for the opposite party, nothing 
for America, save as it can be made the tool of the 



Ro'manism and the Republic, 33 

Papacy ; and in directing this vast body of voters, do 
not forget that they handle them solely and only in 
the interest of Jesuitism, and of the purpose of the 
Roman Catholic hierarchy. The Romanists of 
America will obey the orders that come from Rome in 
every political action, precisely as the Romanists of 
Ireland and America have obeyed the Papal rescript 
recently issued. At least, precedent awakens our 
fear that such will be their course. This dangerous 
element, wielded as a political power, already has 
produced most startling conditions of municipal gov- 
ernment in most of the great cities. They either 
hold the balance o^j^^poi^^'^rgi^ady constitute the 
the majority, in marly city gov«mm^ts ; and they 
work with aiff adroitness ap3 statesnisnship whose 
purpose is asm^g^fous arSTts 'pa^^nc^sj marvelous. 

6. The sixtnj^^pn ^vK^^'^dis^s^lb^ subject is, 
that already the cfe^^y^^gl^^alleged in the 
fourth and fifth reasons, are very obviously at hand. 

The power of the Papacy as a political force is 
already seen in our cities, not merely in the govern- 
ment of the municipality, nor in the blows which they 
are dealing at the public schools ; but in those open 
violations of the constitution of the several states and 
of the United States, which they have extorted from 
time-servino^ lesfislators, and from tremblino' and sub- 
servient politicians. The constitutions of most of 
our states forbid the appropriation on the part of 
the state to any sect of public moneys for its emol- 
ument or use. No religious society can justly 
receive, under the constitution, the public funds for 



34 Romanism and the Republic. 

its up-building and the propagation of its ideas. But 
this wholesome and necessary law has been so evaded, 
that in the city of New York the Eonian Catholic 
Church has grasped millions of the public money. 
Its vast cathedral property, now occupied by one of 
the most magnificent churches in America, was 
obtained for a mere sonsj : and it had stained, as I 
shall hereafter show in detail, for specifically Roman- 
istic institutions, prior to 1870, millions of dollars 
from the public treasury. Already, wise and care- 
ful publicists have told us that we might look for the 
time wdien Roman Catholics will demand a division of 
the school fund, so that a part of it may be appro- 
priated for the support of their parochial school-, now 
rapidly being founded throughout the entire country 
under express orders from Rome. Do you smile at 
this fear? Do you say. It is impossible that the time 
should ever come when the constitution and the prin- 
ciples of the states of the American Union should 
ever be so violated ? But already the attempt has 
been made in our own Commonwealth. And, mark 
my words ! the time is sure to come, and that ere 
long, when Romanism will have the public school 
moneys of our commonsvealths divided, and a large 
share appropriated, contrary to the law and to the 
constitution, to their denominational institutions, 
unless freemen arouse and protect the treasuries on 
which they already have begun to make attacks. 

I will give you two more reasons why I consider 
it necessary, as a conscientious watchman and 
defender of the liberties of the church and of the 
country, to consider Romanism and the Republic. 



Romanism and the Rejpuhlic. 35 

7. My seventh reason is, that the leaders of the 
church, a celibate priesthood and without family ties, 
acknowledge an allegiance to a foreign ruler supe- 
rior to the United States ; and are ready at his com- 
mand to abjure all other fealty. We cannot over- 
look the peculiarity of the Roman Catholic priest- 
hood. It tends, contrary to nature and the law 
of God, to debase social morality. When the iron 
hand of the Papacy struck down the home of the 
priest by forbidding the priests to marry, it was that 
she mio-ht secure their more absolute alleo'iance to 
the church. Without domestic ties or obligations, 
they look for their advancement and joys solely to 
the Papal pow^er. Against the hardships of this 
unnatural edict there have been many protests, 
amounting almost to rebellion, within the Roman 
Catholic Church. Again and again, consequent 
upon observation of the damaging effects of enforced 
celibacy upon the morality of the church and of the 
priesthood, have its more enlightened members 
prayed and petitioned that this heavy burden might 
be taken from them, but up to this hour have pro- 
tested in vain. We cannot appeal to history with- 
out being most certain that a celibate priesthood, 
as a class, has never held to high morality. And 
when we come to speak of the evils of this celibacy 
in its relation to the confessional — w^hen w^e survey, 
from our standpoint of abundant though most pain- 
ful revelations, the relation which these wifeless and 
childless men bear to society — you will be forced to 
acknowledge that they are made, by their very po- 



36 Romayiism and the Hepublic, 

sition and its demands, a constant menace to society 
in its iiighest and dearest interests ; as also, to a 
remarkable degree, by their moral relations, the more 
subservient tools of the Papal power. 
8. The final reason which I present as demanding this 
discussion, is that the wisest statesmen see in 
Romanism and its claim, a source of great national 
peril. I can quote at this time only two or three of 
them. That distinguished son of France, himself a 
member of the Galilean Catholic church, who gave 
more to our country during the Revolution than any 
other foreigner, who assisted in laying the foundation 
of our liberties, and who is honored wherever the 
American Republic is known, the Marquis de la 
Fayette, said, long ago: "If the liberties of the 
American people are ever destroyed, it will be by the 
hands of the Roman clergy." This saying, uttered 
when the Roman church was weak and small in 
America, and when it seemed to threaten no disaster, 
is all the more sis^nificant from the wide knowledo^e 
and careful observation of the statesman who uttered 
it. He had seen the power of Romanism as it had 
operated against the liberties of France; he knew the 
strength of the hand that controlled the priests and 
the people ; and observing the ruinous consequences 
of Papal absolutism, and the despotic way of the 
Roman Curia in other lands, he anticipated that a 
country so fair as this, and destined to so great 
development, would become the chosen nation for the 
assault of these hateful powers that had beaten back 
progress in the Old World. The most eminent 



Romanism and the Republic. 37 

English statesman of our time, who will rank with 
the greatest public men of any age and any land, 
Gladstone, says : " The Pope demands for himself the 
right to determine the province of his own rights, and 
has so defined it in formal documents as to warrant 

any and every invasion of the civil sphere 

Rome requires a convert who joins her, to forfeit his 
moral and mental freedom, and to place his loyalty 
and civil duty at the mercy of another," Prince 
Bismarck, in a speech delivered April 16, 1875, said : 
*' This Pope, this foreigner, this Italian, is more 
powerful in this country than any other person, not 
excepting even the king. And now please to con- 
sider what this foreigner has announced as the pro- 
gramme by which he rules Prussia and elsewhere. 
He begins by taking to himself the right to define 
how far his authority extends ; and this Pope, who 
would employ fire and sword against us if he had the 
power to do so, who would confiscate our property 
and not spare our lives, expects us to allow him full, 
uncontrolled sway." So speak the mightest states- 
men of our age, and shall we not hear these warning 
voices ? and shall we not interpret the movements of 
the Romish prelates in America on the basis of their 
own vows, and according to the developments of 
their plans in other lands? Can we anticipate a 
brighter future for America, under the Papal tyranny, 
than could have been anticipated for Spain, for Italy, 
for France, for Portugal? No. The highest duty 
and obligation which we recognize as Christians — 
our duty to God who holds us responsible for the 



38 Romanism and the Republic. 

preservation of our glorious heritage received from 
our fathers — every consideration of private right and 
public weal, all demand, that at a time of such great 
peril, we should turn aside from our customary over- 
sanguine hopes and optimistic views of America's 
certain future, to consider how we can reproduce, in 
time to come, the unequaled glories of the past, and 
aofainst the rule of the most to be dreaded of foreio:n 
foes, maintain in the future a church v/ithout a 
tyrannous Papal bishop, and a state without a king. 



Sermon M. 

THE JESUITS AND THEIR PURPOSE. 



"Watch ye, staud fast ia the faith, quit you like men, be 
strong." — ! Cor. 16: 13. 

*' If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall 
prepare himself for the battle ? " The clarion voice 
of our text, in the vigor with which it calls upon us 
to be watchful, steadfast, manly and strong, stirs our 
souls. They misunderstand the Scriptures who sup- 
pose that words like these apply only to the smaller 
details of our personal life. On the contrary, these 
directions have the widest range and application,, 
defining our duty and attitude toward the great move- 
ments in which we bear a part, and on which world- 
wide consequences depend. " Watch ye," be alert, 
vigilant, observant, " stand fast in the faith," " con- 
tend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the 
saints," be unyielding, adamantine in resistance, to 
error, " stand like a rock, and the storm and battle 
little shall harm you in doing their worst ;" quit you 
like men " in active work for God and his truth ; '' be 
strong; " the result of watchfulness, steadfastness in 
the faith, manliness in action, is personal strength 
and individual power, which you should always culti- 
vate and display. Such, in brief, is the general doc- 
trine of the text. 



40 Romanism and the Republic. 

In its application to the hidden and open conspir- 
acy of Eomanism against the doctrines of God and 
the liberty of American Christians — the position 
which we should hold for the protection of our dear- 
est rio^hts — no words could be more sifi^nificant. 
" Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," therefore 
" watch," lest, unexpectedly, some enemy shall take 
away the privileges which most you prize. " Stand 
fast in the faith," hold strongly, kindly, firmly, the 
princples of Scriptural truth and of political freedom, 
which, together, are the principles of Protestantism. 
Do not feebly consent to lose your liberties, but 
'' quit you like men ;" and, while without the bigot's 
animosity, maintain the freeman's determined front. 
For the sake of yourselves, your country, the church, 
your children, "be strong," indomitable. 

In the personal application of this great exhorta- 
tion for the government of our conduct, we cannot 
really perceive or understand the menace of Roman- 
ism, unless we review the history of the past as well 
as attentively survey the present. You all are some- 
what familiar with the facts of the great Reformation 
in the sixteenth century. In our blind optimism, 
we are inclined to believe that our liberties are 
secure, that our present advantages can never be for- 
feited, forgetful of the fact that God sometimes per- 
mits the hands of progress to be turned back upon 
the dial of history, as he permitted Rome in the 
century of which we speak, to weld again the 
fetters which the Reformation had broken, and fasten 
them for centuries more upon the prostrate nations. 



Romanism and the Republic, 41 

The beginning of the sixteenth century saw the 
Roman Catholic church predominant over all religi- 
ous, civil and social life throughout Europe. The 
Holy Roman Empire, with its emperor, was in sub- 
jection to the Pope of Rome. The civil rulers 
bowed at the footstools of the Papal power, trem- 
bled at its threats, and accepted its dictation. The 
leading ecclesiastic of Germany, Albert, Archbishop 
of MentZy afterward cardinal, having boldly pur- 
chased his office at a great price, reimbursed him- 
self, and poured money into the Papal treasury by 
securing the monopoly of the sale of indulgences, of 
which Tetzel was the agent and auctioneer. The 
priests, largely corrupted in morals and careless of 
the w^elfare of the people, were willing that the flock 
should be plundered, provided the spoil went into 
the treasury of the church. Even the Jesuit Favre, 
at the Diet at Worms, testified that the priests 
were guilty of grievous crimes. The people, 
shrouded in dark superstition, ignorant of the Holy 
Scriptures, and enslaved by their ecclesiastical 
masters, were still deemed worth plundering, and 
were yielding up their wealth to enrich the Papal 
court south of the Alps. That court was more 
interested in the revival of polite and classical learn- 
ing and in gratifying its vices, than in spreading the 
Gospel of God. Then, when the times were ripe, 
Luther arose, and nailed to the door of the old church 
in Wittenberg those ninety-five immortal theses 
which became the text and proclamation of the 
great Reformation. The ring of his hammer startled 



42 Romanism and the Republic. 

the Pope on his throne, and all the Roman ecclesi- 
astics throughout the world. Rapidly the Refor- 
mation spread throughout Germany and the north- 
ern nations, through England, Scotland, Denmark, 
Sweden, Livonia, the Palatinate and part of Swit- 
zerland. France became also penetrated with the 
new doctrine; even Spain, Portugal, Italy, were 
moved thereby ; while it seemed that Bavaria, Hun- 
gary, Bohemia and Poland were likely to follow the 
example of others in denying the assumptions of the 
Pope, and accepting the word of God, rather than 
the traditions of men. " Within fifty years of the 
day when Luther publicly renounced communion 
with Rome," says Lord Macaulay, " Protestantism 
attained its highest ascendancy, an ascendancy which 
it soon lost ; and which it never regained." (This 
was written in 1840.) Then arose a counter move- 
ment in the south of Europe, a reformation of 
methods and of discipline in the church of Rome. 
In two generations, a powerfid reaction had con- 
firmed the supremacy of the Papacy in all the uncer- 
tain territory, and France, Spain, Italy, Poland, 
Hungary and Bohemia became the servile dependents 
of Romanism, and so remained for nearly three 
hundred years. 

This counter movement in the Romish church, by 
which it held almost undisputed power over these 
nations for more than three centuries, is due, more 
than to any other agency, to Ignatius Loyola, and the 
Jesuit society of which he was the founder. The power 
of this organization within the Romish church, — 



RomanisTYi and the Republic, 43 

an organization which through many vicissitudes is 
still intact, and is to-day the very core of Eoiuanism 
in its principles and its policy, — claims our attention, 
and must be studied in its purposes and its methods, 
in order that we may be informed of the intentions 
and claims of Romanism in the United States, and 
that we may properly guard and protect our country 
against the destruction plotted against us by a sleep- 
less and cruel foe. It is impossible to understand 
the Romish church of to-day or of the past three 
hundred years, without a knowledge of the Jesuits 
and their influence in the church ; and it is equally 
impossible to clearly apprehend the Jesuit doctrines 
and purposes, unless we know something of their 
founder. I therefore beg your attention for a little, 
to some facts which throw light upon the history of 
Ignatius Loyola, first general of the Jesuits, who 
created the organization, formulated its constitution, 
directed its beginnings, and infused into it his spirit. 
1. Ignatius Loyola was born in 1491, in the north 
of Spain, of the family of Loyola, who were among the 
grandees of that country. He early became a page 
at the court of Ferdinand the Catholic, and was dis- 
tinofuished as a s^allant and a courtier. He had for 
his dulcinea, as he tells us, "not a duchess nor a 
countess, but one of higher rank," and was dis- 
tinguished in court at joust and tournament as one 
of the brave warriors and handsome courtiers of the 
day. At twenty-nine years of age, when the French 
troops of Francis I. poured over the border, Loyola 
was present in the little city of Pampeluna, to which 



44 Romanism and the Republic. 

they laid siege. The governor and commander of 
the city resolved to yield it up. Loyola protested 
with vigor, secured the assistance of a single soldier, 
and throwing himself into the citadel, desperately 
resolved to defend it to the last. A few more joined 
him, and in their desperate resistance, while bravely 
fighting on the wall, Loyola was struck down by 
missiles which broke one of his legs. He was 
carried to his ancestral home and laid upon a bed of 
suffering. The imperfect surgery of the time, after 
inflicting exquisite torture, which he bravely endured, 
at length left one of his legs shorter than the other, 
destroying his fitness for the court and military 
exercises. At this time, while heroically suffering, 
lying on a sick bed, and aware that he was maimed 
for life, there was put into his hands a book called 
the '* Lives of the Saints," and some simple pictorial 
life of Christ. Keading the " Lives of the Saints," 
this disappointed cavalier began to revolve in his 
mind visions of another knighthood in the service of 
the church. " Why cannot I do for the church what 
St. Dominic and St. Francis did?" he said. And 
then and there, his imagination picturing to him 
the glories of such a service, he devoted himself to 
the service of Our Lady and of the Church. 

Romanist historians deliiJjht to tell how at this 
time St. Peter appeared and cured him of a fever ; 
and how, praying, he saw the Virgin Mother and the 
Child. They also tell of an earthquake rending the 
walls of his room, while the rest of the castle was 
not shaken. Loyola's resolution was now taken ; 



Homanism and the Hejnthlic, 45 

he would become a monk ; and having recovered a 
degree of health, he mounted his steed and started 
for the neiohborino^ convent of Montserrat. It 
shows the fierce temper of the man, that w^hile on 
his way to the convent, he overtook a Moor, with 
whom he disputed about the virginity of the blessed 
Mother. The Moor admitted that she was such 
before the birth of the Christ, but denied that she 
was afterward. The debate waxed warm, and the 
Moor parted from Loyola and galloped forward. 
Loyola following, resolved that if his mule, on whose 
neck he laid the reins, should follow the road w^hich 
the Moor had taken, he would assail the infidel, and 
stab him to the heart. Fortunately the animal took 
the other road up the mountain, and Loyola was 
saved the guilt of fanatical and vengeful murder. 
Arriving at the convent, he gave his rich clothing to 
a beo'o^ar, takino- the beo^o^ar's rao^s in exchano-e, 

CO ' O CO O O ' 

retaining only his jewelled dagger and sword. These 
he hung up before the image of Our Lady, and 
throuo'h a lons^ nis^ht, as did the ancient knis^hts, in 

O O C? -' O ' 

vigil, devoted himself to the service of his mistress. 
Next day he goes to the hospital, not far off, where, 
thirsting for humility and sufiering, he performs the 
tiiost menial and diss^ustinoj services for the sick. 

o o 

Ho service was too shocking for him. But being 
annoyed by those who recognized him as a noble, he 
departs from the hospital, and betakes himself to the 
horrible and lonely cave of Manresa, in which he 
spends two years. Here he has unspeakable agony 
of mind, starves himself almost to death, and sees 



46 Homanism and the Repuhlic, 

visions, alternately threatening and consoling. Here, 
at this time, he composed the only writings, with 
the exception of a few letters, which he wrote during 
his life ; the first work, A Manual of Spiritual Exer- 
cises for the creation of that society of which he 
afterward became the founder ; the second work, The 
Constitution and Rules by which that society should 
be governed. Filled with a visionary purpose of 
converting Oriental nations, he starts, at the age of 
thirty-one, for Palestine, begging his way. Arriving 
there, he is forced to return by the authorities of the 
church, there being no place for him. Once more 
in Spain, and having seen the need of education for 
the work which he desired to do, at thirty-three 
years of age he goes to school, and sitting on the 
bench beside little boys, studies the Latin language. 
About this time he is said to have seen the Holy 
Trinity in a vision, to have witnessed also the very 
fact of transubstantiation by which the bread is 
changed to the body of Christ in the mass, to have 
beheld the soul of a friend who died taken visibly 
to the heavens, and, still more wonderful, he is said, 
in a vision, to have been taus^ht more of natural 
science than falls to the lot of most men to know. 
The Romanist biographers seriously tell how he 
was raised bodily from the ground while at prayer, 
cured incurables by a touch, and much more of the 
same sort. Two years later, he goes to the Uni- 
versity of Alcala, later still to Salamanca, and at 
thirty-eight years of age, following an inward voice, 
to the University of Paris. 



Romanism and the Ttepublic. 47 

He is here distinguished for the intensity of his 
devotion, more than for any scholarly ability. At 
forty-four, he took his degree in philosophy, at the 
University of Paris. But meanwhile, steadily pur- 
suing his purpose to found a society, he gathers its 
nucleus in the person of Xavier, Laynez, Bobadilla 
and two or three others, who, with mutual vows, 
resolve that they will obey the constitutions which 
he has formulated. Leaving Paris they go to Rome 
together, he seeing more visions on the way, and in 
1540, after earnest solicitations of the Pope, when 
Loyola is forty-nine years of age, the society of 
Jesuits is formed. Loyola forsook all his family 
connections when he entered Montserrat, and with 
them he held scarcely any communication afterward. 
He left his native country, for which he never seems 
to have cherished further regard ; abandoned, in fact, 
all human friends. For, though he inspired wonder- 
ful devotedness in men to his ideas, he seems never 
to have had a friend : unless in the person of one or 
two women, who followed him wdth almost supersti- 
tious devotion, — one of whom formed a religious 
house near that of the Jesuits in Rome. 

I note these particulars, that you may see the 
character of the man, because it is reflected in his 
society. He is a typical Romish Ecclesiastic and 
Jesuit. 

How diff'erent the typical Protestant, as seen in 
the character of Martin Luther. Born in 1483, 
Martin Luther at twelve attends school at 
Magdeburg; at fourteen goes to Eisenach, and is 



48 Homanism and the Hepuhlic, 

soon distinguished for skill in music, eloquence, and 
philosophy ; at eighteen he enters the University at 
Erfurt, and becomes bachelor and master of arts at 
twenty-two; at twenty-five is selected, on account 
of his great ability and scholarship, to be professor 
of philosophy in the University at Wittenburg ; at 
twenty-nine is doctor of theology, a Biblical Doctor, 
he says, pledged to teach the Holy Scriptures ; and 
before he has attained the years at which Loyola left 
the University of Paris, Luther has propounded his 
theses, debated with Dr. Eck, and vanquished both 
Cajetan and DeVio, the Papal legates ; has defied the 
Pope, the Church, and the Emperor, in the brave and 
dauntless stand which he took for the word of God, 
and the liberty of the church, at the diet of Worms ; 
has translated and given to the people in their native 
tongue the whole New Testament ; and has super- 
vised the translation of the Old, which glorious book 
became not only the foundation of the Reformation 
but of German Literature also ; and has come to be 
universally recognized as one of the most profound 
scholars, one of the most eloquent preachers, as also 
one of the most distinguished university professors 
of Germany and Christendom. 

This Luther, with his broad scholarship, his love 
of the people, his respect for his parents, and devo- 
tion to his friends, his warm social companionships, 
his ibnd and tender home-life, — Luther, with his little 
children about his knees, his little daughter dying in 
his arms, with all the humanities of a man, with all 
the tenderness of a woman, with all the bravery of a 



Romanism and the Republic . 49 

reformer, and the instincts of a statesman, is as truly 
a typical Protestant, as the concentrated, fanatical, 
half-educated Loyola is a typical son of the church. 
So much for the root, out of which grew the society 
of eTesuits. 

2. The first, most manifest desiscn of the Jesuits was 
to exterminate Protestantism ; the second, to build 
up the Roman church ; included in this latter, was 
their purpose to diminish the power of the bishops, 
in favor of the supremacy, the absolutism, the 
infallibility of the Pope, and then to gain control of 
that Pope, as embodying the church, and so advanc- 
ing their society. In order to the accomplishment 
of these purposes, the constitution of the society 
was formulated by Loyola ; a constitution which I 
cannot give you in detail only for lack of time, but 
some of whose salient points are as follows : 

1. Every Jesuit is bound by the constitution of 
the society, and a solemn oath, or vow, to poverty, 
chastity and obedience. To these also is added, in 
the case of the so-called " professed," a fourth 
vow of absolute obedience to the Pope. Not all the 
Jesuits take these four vows, but only according to 
the grade to which they attain in the society. 

Concerning the voiv of poverty, by which they 
deny themselves all worldly possessions — Loyola is 
said to have debated and prayed forty days and 
forty nights. The general of the society is made 
the trustee of their possessions. So extreme were 
Loyola's views on this point, that a Roman Catholic 
historian tells us, that if one of the brothers plucked 



50 Romanism and the Republic, 

a flower or picked up an apple in the garden of their 
house, Loyola visited the offence with severe pen- 
ance, as violating this rule of poverty, by possession. 
And yet, notwithstanding the vow, when the society 
was suppressed in 1772 by the act of Pope Clement 
XIV., they were found possessed ot more than 
$200,000,000. It was also the law of the society 
correlate to this, that no Jesuit should hold any 
office, save in the society. Nevertheless, at this time, 
they had twenty-four cardinals, six electors of the 
empire, nineteen princes, twenty-one archbishops, 
and one hundred and twenty-one titular bishops ; 
showing clearly how the lust of power gained 
supremacy over their vows. 

The vow of chastity, similar to that which Eomish 
priests now take, was to so separate them from the 
ordinary domestic duties of life, that their sole 
devotion should be given to the church. Perhaps, to 
a considerable extent, they have honored this vow ; 
but a purpose so contrary to nature and the word 
and will of God, has never in any age warranted the 
assertion that the celibates of Rome were chaste. 

The vow of obedience, however, seemed to be the 
strongest and most essential part of the constitution 
of the Jesuits. This obedience is absolute, and is to 
be paid to the superior. Says Loyola : "I ought to 
obey the superior as God, in whose place he stands." 
Every Jesuit's oath includes these words ; "To you, 
the Father-General, and to your successors, whom I 
regard as holding the place of God, perpetual pov- 
erty, chastity and obedience, etc." Loyola's under- 



Homanism and the liejjublic, 51 

standing of this vow is declared in his famous letter 
on obedience, when he writes that this obedience 
should be so absolutely passive that one should be 
like a dead body moved only by the will of another, 
or like a staff in the hands of an old man, or like a 
crucifix in the hands of a worshipper. The virtue of 
this obedience is in proportion to its absoluteness. 
When the intellect does not even raise an inquiry 
about the thing commanded, when the Jesuit yields 
without the shadow of a will or purpose of his own, 
then obedience attains perfection. Among the first 
things which happen to a novice, who is to become a 
Jesuit, is the entire breaking down of his will. This 
is systematically sought and secured. In some cases, 
the novice passing the first night in a Jesuit house, 
has been tested as follows : When he has fallen 
asleep, he lias been awakened, commanded to rise, 
take up his mattress, and go to another room, and 
this ao^ain and asfain throuo^h the nio-ht. If he asks 
why, or raises the slightest query or objection, he 
is considered unfit for the society. 

This rule of absolute obedience, to go anywhere 
and perform any service at the command of the 
superior, is now fully enforced. A friend of mine 
received the following admissions and explanation 
from a company of Jesuits with whom he sailed on a 
ship in the Mediterranean Sea a few years since. 
They were missionaries, going under orders. They 
said : " Wherever we are, in the garden, in the street, 
if the command comes to us to go to any part of the 
earth, to Asia, Africa, America, on any service, we 



52 Romanism and the Rejpublic, 

do not wait to enter the house for money, for cloth- 
ing, or for farewells, but simply and at once start 
from where we are and go." 

Loyola insisted on this rule of obedience with the 
utmost rigor. An old monk, who preferred wearing 
his night-cap in the house to the beretta prescribed 
by the rule, was dismissed. The professor of the- 
ology was sometimes commanded by Loyola to take 
the place of the cook, and the cook the place of the 
professor of theology ; or a priest, in the midst of the 
mass, was commanded to go into the street ; and all 
this must be done without question, however absurd. 
A modest monk, coming into Loyola's presence and 
told to be seated, who did not instantly comply, was 
commanded to take the chair on his head, and hold 
it there as lono; as he remained. And these are but 
a few of the illustrations taken from Romish authors, 
which show how completely Loyola insisted on the 
fulfillment of this vow. The rigors of military 
discipline to which he was accustomed in early life, 
appear in all the constitutions and practice of the 
society, and their head is called the general. 

The vow of obedience to the Pope, the fourth and 
last of these vows, taken by the highest members of 
the profession, has been kept only when the Pope 
was obedient to the will of the Jesuits. Loyola him- 
self, by diplomacy and evasion, contended with the 
Pope, and won his point too. Again and again, in the 
history of the society, the clashing of the Papal 
will with the will of the general of the Jesuits, has 
resulted in the submission or the ruin of the Pope. 



Romanism and the Bepublic, 53 

Several popes have died, apparently by poison, at the 
hand of this Order, who vowed obedience to them as 
Sixtus Y., Urban YII., Clement VIII., and Clement 
XIY. 

Turning from these Constitutions, in the 
next place, we call your attention to some of the 
methods and principles of this society. Among the 
first duties of a Jesuit, to which he devotes his life, 
is the teaching of the young. This apparently laud- 
able purpose, made the Jesuits the school-masters of 
Europe. Far and wide they founded their houses of 
learning ; as Luther before had founded them in 
Germany. " They possessed themselves of the pul- 
pit, press, confesssional and the school," as says 
Macaulay. But never forget that the first and sole 
purpose of the society as a teacher, is to make sub- 
missive Koman Catholics. This determines the kind 
and quantity of their teaching, and this must account 
for the fact that, in those countries where the Papacy 
and the Jesuit have had completest sway, there is 
found to-day the most extraordinary percentage of 
illiteracy : as witness, Italy, where 73 per cent, of the 
people are illiterate, or Spain with 80 per cent., and 
Mexico with 93 per cent. Could this have been true 
if the Jesuits, fulfilling their vow to teach, had really 
opened the avenues of knowledge to their scholars ? 
Rome educates only where she must, where Protest- 
antism compels her to do so. From Roman Cath- 
olics have come some of the severest criticisms on the 
narrowness of their methods of instruction. 



54 Romanisw. and the Hejpiiblic. 

Secondly. The Jesuit vowed to devote himself to 
missions. Out of this vow, sprang the heroic devo- 
tion of Xavier and his associates, in India, of the 
Jesuit missions to China, to Japan, to North and 
South America, and Mexico. Of this mission work 
in China, in Japan, and in North America, there is 
hardly a trace remaining. In India, they prepared 
the way for the English power, without intending to 
do so. It is true that they degraded the gospel with 
pagan rites, so that nine popes vehemently con- 
demned their methods and tried in vain to reform 
them. 

In the third place, their method and principle 
includes the assertion and upholding of the infallibil- 
ity of the pope. The statement of this doctrine in 
full must be reserved to a later time with all its absurd 
and hurtful consequences ; but the word infallibility 
conveys its plain meaning. The pope, according to 
the Jesuit idea, is the church. His decisions, speak- 
ing in bulls, encyclicals and the like, are as binding 
as the word of God. Nothwithstandino' the alle«:ed 
infallibility of the pope and his absolute supremacy, 
they have repeatedly evaded and violated his com- 
mands. They are responsible for that recent decree 
of the Vatican council, which makes Papal infallibil- 
ity as much a doctrine of the Romish Church as the 
doctrine of the existence of God ; and it is a common 
jest in Rome, that the Jesuit general, who is known 
as the <* Black Pope," is superior to the creature of 
the cardinals, who is known as the ** White Pope." 



Romanism and the Hepuhlic, 55 

Fourth, The Jesuits, among their leading principles, 
insist on the secular power of the pope, his right to 
rule as a temporal prince and monarch over all civil 
governors, princes, kings, rulers and legislators. 
They have urged on and defended him in deposing 
monarchs, absolving Romanists from obedience to 
laws, and other treasonable acts, and that within 
twenty-five years. The supremacy of the Papal 
dictum in all matters that relate to faith and morals, 
includes also, in their theory, all that relates remotely 
to the discipline of the church. And yet, notwith- 
standing their devotion to the secular power of the 
pope, they, perhaps more than any other society, 
have contributed to the loss of Papal influence, not 
only in the Poman States, but also in other countries 
of the world. And to show the blis^ht of their rule 
and government, where pope and Jesuit were supreme 
in the Poman States, the morality of the people 
degenerated to the lowest ebb of virtue, the deepest 
infamy of vice. 

As the last of the principles on which the society 
works, which I may now mention — they hold that 
the end justifies the means ; that if the end is good, 
whatever means are used thereto are s^ood. Prob- 
ably it was this conception that made Loyola join 
with Cardinal Paul and Cardinal Caraflfa, in establish- 
ing the Inquisition in Portugal. Although some of 
the Jesuits deny this as a principle of their conduct, 
the proofs are too abundant. Guryand Busenbaum, 
Layman and Wagemann, in Jesuit treatises on theo- 
logy and morals, distinctly avow the doctrine, and 



56 Romanism and the Hepuhlic. 

thus justify any wickedness in pursuit of the purpose 
of upbuilding the Church of Rome. (See Dr. 
Littledale in Encyc. Brit., Art. Jesuits.) And their 
practice, in the judgment of the ablest historians, 
proves how fully they apply their theory. Macaulay, 
Ranke, and Hallam, lay at their door crimes against 
the state, against society, and against the person, 
which can only be excused on the ground that blind 
devotion to the church had made the instigators of 
these crimes reckless of the means w^hich they pur- 
sued to obtain their ends. The assassination of 
William of Orange, of Henry IV. of France, attempts 
on the life of Elizabeth of England, the Gunpowder 
Plot, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, the Revo- 
cation of the Edict of Nantes, are illustrations of the 
wicked deeds with which history too closely connects 
them. 

Loyola's military experience, and rigid military 
ideas, appear everywhere in the modes of the society 
and its administration. Under their general are 
provincials, who have charge of certain territory, and 
a still lower grade of officers are called rectors ; and 
a complete system of espionage is kept up ; not only 
on all members of the society, but on all the events 
of the community where they dwell, a minute report 
of which is regularly and carefully sent to Rome. 
This has been their method for centuries, and is their 
method to-day. 

If the purpose of this society was religious, 
solely or mostly ; if by their poverty they simply 
meant to separate themselves from the world ; if by 



Romanism and the Republic, 57 

their chastity, they would encourage a certain ideal 
of purity, and if obedience only meant ready sub- 
ordination to the command of a good leader, in the 
pursuit of a good work, how does it happen that the 
Society of Jesuits has incurred the suspicion, the 
dislike, the antagonism, the fear and the hatred of 
almost every ruler and every government of Europe, 
and of the world ? 

Let us speak briefly, in closing, of their work, as 
far as that work can be epitomized in a few words. 
In pursuance of their designs, scattering to all 
countries of Europe and of the world, the Jesuits 
would be supposed to have been the allies of Roman 
Catholic princes, and to have assisted in the diflfusion 
of those doctrines and principles held by Roman 
Catholics, to the satisfaction of all faithful sons of the 
church. Such, however, is not the case. 

For conspiracy, machinations and evil designing, 
the Jesuits have been banished necessarily from 
almost every state of Europe. Roman Catholic 
Portugal, in 1759, led the way; and under the 
leadership of one of the most enlightened statesmen 
that Portugal ever had, banished them from the 
realm. Spain followed shortly after, sending, in a 
single day, six thousand Jesuits from her borders to 
Italy; and as late as 1868, the Cortez of Spain 
reaffirmed its legislation against the society of 
Jesuits. Parma and Naples banished them; also 
Switzerland, Prussia and Russia; until it may be 
said in truth, that, saving the insignificant kingdom 
of Belgium, every nation of Europe has legislated 
against them. 



58 Homanism and the Republic. 

But more than this : at about the time of our 
Revolution, the attention of Pope Clement XIV. hav- 
ing been called to the abuses created by the Jesuit 
society, after extended deliberation, in the most 
solemn terms, rehearsing the evils that they had 
done in and out of the church, in the year 1772, this 
Pope pronounced upon them the ban and anathema 
of the Roman curia, and forbade that they should 
reorganize or exist * ' to all eternity." Another pope, 
Pius VI., confirmed his predecessors decree. The 
Jesuits fled to Protestant Prussia and to Russia also, 
whence they were banished again. From 1772 to 
1814, still secretly cherishing their society in defiance 
of the Pope, and working ruin wherever they went, 
the Jesuits existed under the Papal ban. Then 
another infallible pope, Pius VII., regardless of the 
decree of his predecessors, reinstated and rehabili- 
tated the society of Jesuits. The decree of Clement 
XIV. cost him his life. Bellarmine, a leading 
Jesuit of the society, prophesied that he would die 
within a year. That prophecy was regarded as a 
threat, and the pope died, with every indication of 
having been poisoned. The unscrupulous methods 
of the society, which have caused prince and pope 
and legislature to lay upon them their heavy hand, 
have never been condemned by the Jesuits, nor have 
they ever ceased to practice them. But where did the 
banished Jesuit go ? Whither, when under the suspic- 
ion, and flying from the hatred of the rising spirit of 
freedom in Europe, does he betake himself, and where 
is he now? I answer, In America, in the United 
States. 



JRomanism and the Jlepublic. 59 

Our country is the paradise of Jesuits. Unwarned 
by the experience of other lands, regardless of the 
bonds they weave about the liuil)s of liberty, we 
have permitted their presence in this country, until 
almost read}' to throw oif the disguise, they now 
threaten our institutions with ruin. It is the Jesuit 
who animates the attack on our public schools ; the 
Jesuit who thrusts his hand into the public treasur- 
ies. It is the Jesuit who is endeavoring to divide 
the school fund, who is dictating the policy by which 
Romish schools shall take the place of the national 
schools. It is the Jesuit who is decrying free 
speech and liberty of conscience and' a free press ; 
who is doing his utmost in conformity with the con- 
stitutions of the society of which he is a sworn 
adherent, and of the Papacy of which he is at once 
the dictator and the slave, to reduce free America 
to the subjection of an absolute monarch. 

What Avill be the result ? Strans^e and wonderful 
to say, misfortune and disaster to themselves seems 
to follow their designs against government. In 1870, 
it was their influence which assembled and directed 
the Vatican Council, w^hich should exalt still hiofher 
the doomas of the church, and overthrow the o^row- 
ing spirit of freedom. It was their plan, at the 
same time, to declare the Pope infallible, and to 
subjugate Italy and Europe to his power. Napoleon 
III. of France, the favorite son of the church, whose 
bayonets were the guard and support of the Papal 
throne, was led, through Jesuit influence, to declare 
war upon Protestant Prussia. But behold ! while 



60 Romanism and the Republic. 

they debated the infallibility of the Pope, the mon- 
arch on whom Pius IX. had shed the blight of his bles- 
sing surrendered himself, his army and his empire 
at Sedan, and free Italy began to march on Rome. 
Many prelates fled the Imperial City, and the 
thunder of the guns of Prussia at Sedan was 
answered by the cannon of free Ital}^, turned against 
the gates of Rome. Into their long degraded capi- 
tal swept the hosts of freedom ; the Quirinal became 
the palace of the King of United Italy, Victor 
Emanuel, and when the few hundred ecclesiastics of 
the Papacy, only a fraction of the Council, passed the 
decree which made the Pope an infallible prince, it 
was answered by the huzzahs of liberty throughout 
France and Italy. Since then, the Infallible has 
whined and protested, begged and threatened, but 
he is an Italian subject against his will, and must be, 
while he stays in Rome. God grant that the machin- 
ations of the Roman hierarchy may result in the 
emancipation of their followers from Papal tyranny 
in America, as in France and Italy ! Let Jesuitism, 
which has fled to America, to found an Empire on 
the ruins of the Republic, having been swept by 
edict from the Old World, here find a grave ; while 
American Catholic Christians, Romanist and 
Protestant, open the Word of God, and by it the 
gates of progress, here, in the free Republic of the 
West. 



Sermon 5IL 

THE POPE AND THE PAPAL POWER THE FOES OF 

FREEDOM. 



'*That man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who 
opposeih and exaltetU himself above all that is called God, or 
that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of 
God, showing himself that he is God." — 3 Thess. 2: 3,4. 

Many very able commentators believe that this text 
prophesies and describes the Pope of Rome. I do 
not affirm that the sacred writer foretells the Papacy 
in these prophetic words ; but we risk nothing in 
claiming that the description actually outlines the 
pretensions and assumptions of the Pope, and that 
Romanism allows to him nearly all, if not all, of the 
presumptuous claims that are here indicated. The 
lives of many of the Popes certainly correspond to 
the definition "the man of sin," in their scandalous 
wickedness and immorality. Their pride and pre- 
tensions are not unfittingly delineated in the words, 
"who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that 
is called God, or that is worshipped ;" since, as I 
shall show, the Pope opposes all other forms of 
religion excepting the Roman Catholic, and exalts 
his claims, so that his declarations demand of Roman 
Catholics as absolute respect and obedience as though 
they were the very words of God. He certainly 



62 Romanism and the Republic. 

" sitteth in the temple of God ; " and if he does not 
say " I am God," he presumptuously asserts, in his 
claims to infallibility, the possession of attributes 
belonging to God alone. There is no other person- 
age in history to whom these words seem to so 
exactly apply ; and whether they are fit to describe 
him you shall judge, when we have examined his 
demands and his government. 

You will remember, that in the former discourse 
we enlarged upon the principles, methods, and con- 
stitution of the Jesuits, and, having seen that their 
policy was one of absolute imperialism, directly 
opposed to freedom, religious and civil, we affirmed 
that they now dictate, as for centuries they have 
controlled, the Papal policy. In further proof of 
this, Mr. Gladstone says ("Vatican Decrees," page 
188) : " The Jesuits are the men who cherish, meth- 
odize, transmit and exaooerate all the dans^erous 
traditions of the Curia. In them it lives. The 
ambition and self-seekins^ of the court of Rome have 
here their root. They supply that Roman malaria 
which Dr. Newman tells us encircles the base of the 
rock of St. Peter." R. W. Thompson, in his 
extended and admirable work on ' ' The Papacy and 
the Civil Power," p. 113, says of the Jesuits : " They 
are sim})ly a band of ecclesiastical office-holders, held 
together by the cohesive power of common ambition 
as compactly as an army of soldiers, and are gov- 
erned by a commander-in-chief, whose brow they 
would adorn forever with a kingly crown, and who 
wields the Papal lash over them with imperial threat- 



Romanism and the Republic, 63 

enings. All these, with exceptions, if any, too few 
to be observed, are laboring with wonderful assiduity 
to educate the whole membership of their church up 
to the point of accepting, without hesitation or 
inquiry, all the Jesuit teaching in reference to the 
Papacy as a necessary and indispensable part of their 
religious faith ; so that, whensoever the Papal order 
shall be issued, they may march their columns 
unbroken into the Papal army. With blasphemous 
and fulsome adulation of the Pope, applying to him 
terms which are due onlj^ to God, they are all 
devoted to the object of exterminating Protestant- 
ism, civil and religious, and extending the sceptre 
of the Papacy over the world." And yet again. Dr. 
L. DeSantis, an ex-priest, a Roman by birth, who 
was once curate of the Magdalene parish in Rome, 
professor of theology in the Roman University, and 
qualificator of the Inquisition, thus expressed him- 
self: ''From the period of the Council of Trent, 
Roman Catholicism has identified itself with Jesuit- 
ism. That unscrupulous order has been known to 
clothe itself, when occasion required, with new forms, 
and to give a convenient elasticity to its favorite 
maxim that the end is everything, and all the means 
to attain it are good ; but, by depending on the 
skilful tactics of the society of Jesus, the court of 
Rome has been constrained to yield to it ascend- 
ancy, confide her destiny to its hands, and permit it 
to direct her interest ; and of its control Jesuitism 
has availed itself in the most absolute way. It has 
constituted the powerful mainspring, more or less 



64 Romanism and the Republic. 

concealed, of the whole Papal machinery." (*^ Rome, 
Christian and Papal." ) 

These are representative and adequate illustrations 
of the opinion of the best informed men of our own 
generation, that the Jesuits are the power behind the 
Papal throne. Their policy, as we know from the 
constitutions, is one of absolute imperialism, the 
subjugation of all government, all thought, all faith, 
and all conscience to the commands of the Pope. 

1. The Pope claims to be, by divine right, absolute 
ruler over all men and all nations, in all things. 
The decree of the Vatican Council of 1870 concerning 
the infallibility of the Pope, now a dogma of the 
Eomanist faith, is in the following words ("The 
Decrees," p. 48) : " We teach and define that it is 
a dogma divinely revealed, that the Roman Pontiff, 
when he speaks ex cathedra^ that is, when in dis- 
charge of the office of pastor and doctor of all 
Christians, by virtue of his supreme apostolic 
authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith and 
morals to be held by the universal church, by the 
definite assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, 
is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine 
Redeemer willed that his church should be endowed, 
for defining doctrine regarding faith or morals, and 
therefore such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are 
irreformable of themselves, and not from the consent 
of the church. But if any one, which may God 
avert, presume to contradict this our definition, let 
him be anathema." Still further, to cite the con- 
densed form of expression used by Mr. Ghidstone 



Homanism and the Hejpublic. 65 

(*« Vaticanism," p. 141) : '' The council of the Vati- 
can decreed that the Pope had from Christ immediate 
power over the universal church ; that all were 
bound to obey him, of whatever right and dignity, 
collectively as well as individually ; that this duty of 
obedience extends to all matters of faith and morals, 
and of the discipline and government of the church ; 
that in all ecclesiastical causes he is a judge without 
appeal or possibility of reversal ; that the definitions, 
both in faith and morals, delivered ex cathedra^ are 
irreformable in themselves, and not from the consent 
of the church, and are invested with the infallibility 
granted by Christ in the said subject-matter to the 
church." Surely, it is not too much to say that a 
convert now joining the Papal church, yielding to 
the claims now made upon him by the authority 
which he solemnly and with the highest responsi- 
bilility acknowledges, is required to surrender his 
mental and moral freedom, and to place his loyalty 
and civil duty at the hand of another. Now, the 
expression " faith and morals," includes far more 
then mere ecclesiastical leo^islation. Let a hio:h 
Roman Catholic authority tell us how much more, 
by implication, is included in this right of the Pope : 
"All, both pastors and faithful, are bound to sub- 
mit, not only in matters belonging to faith and 
morals, but also in those pertaining to the discipline 
and government of the church throughout the world. 
This is the teaching of the Catholic faith, from which 
none can depart without detriment to faith and 
salvation. We further teach and declare, that the 



66 Homanism and the Repiiblic. 

Pope is the supreme judge of the faithful, and that 
in all causes pertaining to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 
recourse may be had to his judgment ; and that 
none may rebate the judgment of the apostolic See, 
than whose there is no greater authority ; and that 
it is not lawful for any one to sit in judgment on its 
judgment." 

Commenting on this, Mr. Gladstone says : " Abso- 
lute obedience is due to the Pope at the peril of 
salvation, not alone in faith, in morals, but in all 
things which concern the discipline and government 
of the church. Even in the United States, where 
the severance between church and state is supposed 
to be complete, a long catalogue may be drawn of 
subjects belonging to the domain and competency 
of the state, but also undeniably afiecting the govern- 
ment of the church ; such as, by way of example, 
marriage, burial, education, prison-discipline, blas- 
phemy, poor relief, incorporation, mortmain, religi- 
ous endowment, vows of celibacy and obedience. 
But on all matters respecting which any Pope may 
think proper to declare that they concern either 
faith or morals, or the government or discipline of 
the church, he claims, with the approval of a council, 
undoubtedly ecumenical in the Roman sense, the 
absolute obedience, at the peril of salvation, of every 
member of his communion." (*' Vaticanism," p. 
55.) More startling still, the Pope claims the right 
to define his own rights and the limits of his power ; 
the sole unlimited power to interpret his own claims, 
in such a manner and by such words as he may 



Romanism and Ihe Republic, 67 

from time to time think fit. '* Against such defini- 
tion of his own power there is no appeal to reason, 
that is rationalism ; nor to Scripture, that is heresy ; 
nor to history, that is private judgment. Over all 
these things he claims to be absolute judge." (* 'Vati- 
canism," p. 186.) 

The Catholic TFbr/c? for August, 1871, one of the 
most influential periodicals of the Romish Church in 
America, thus states it: *' Each individual must 
receive his faith and law from the church of which 
he is a member by baptism, with unquestioning sub- 
mission and obedience of the intellect and will. 
Authority and obligation are correlative in end and 
extent. We have no right to ask reasons of the 
church [the Pope ] any more than of Almighty God, 
as a preliminary to our submission. We are to 
take with unquestionable docility whatever instruc- 
tions the church [that is the Pope] gives us." How 
this monstrous doctrine is understood by the Pope 
himself, whose understanding and words are the 
absolute law of the church, let us see from his own 
words. Has he temporal and civil power? or is he, 
as a man and an ecclesiastic, amenable to the laws 
of the country in which he sojourns? He himself 
says, in a Papal bull, issued by him in 1860, that his 
temporal power is derived from God alone, and is 
absolutely necessary to the church, inasmuch as it is 
indispensable to him that he shall possess such an 
amount of freedom as to be subject to no civil power ; 
that is, that he must be above all government and 
independent of them all, and have that amount of 



^8 Romanism and the Republic. 

freedom and irresponsibilty to constitutions and laws 
which shall enable him to do as he pleases. ('* The 
Papacy and the Civil Power," p. 137.) 

In quoting, as I am about to do, another Roman 
Catholic authority, do not fail to bear in mind that 
every book published by Roman Catholics, issued by 
their publishing houses, and sanctioned by their 
prelates, has passed through the careful censorship 
of their ecclesiastics, and speaks therefore with 
authority. I now quote from a tract printed for The 
Catholic Publication Society, Number 46, on **The 
Pope's Temporal Power." After having declared 
that the authority of the Pope exercised at Rome is 
equally necessary throughout the whole world, it 
proceeds in form of question and answer as follows : 
"How can this independence of Civil authority be 
secured? Only in one way. The Pope must be a 
sovereign himself: No temporal prince, whether 
Emperor, or King, or President, or any legislative 
body, can have any lawful jurisdiction over the Pope. 
What right has the Pope to be independent of every 
civil ruler? He has it in virtue of his dignity as the 
Vicar of Christ. Christ himself is King of kings ; 
but the Pope governs the church in the name of 
Christ and as his representative. His divine office, 
therefore, makes him superior to every political, tem- 
poral and human government." But that this usurper 
of universal dominion may give color to these arro- 
gant pretensions and claims, he endeavors to make* 
it appear that he is not a foreign prince, attempting 
to exercise jurisdiction out of his proper realm. In 



Romanism and the Republic. 69 

the Encyclical of Pius IX., dated Jan. 5, 1873, 
addressed to the Armenian church, who had objected 
to his attempt to control the appointment of their 
bishops, ( found in The New Freeman^s Journal and 
Catholic Register April 19, 1873), the Pope 
declares, that " it is false that the Roman Pontiffs 
have ever exceeded the limits of their power, and 
interfered in the civil administration of states ; and 
that they have usurped the rights of princes. He can- 
not be called a " foreigner" to any Christians or any 
particular churches of Christians. Moreover, those 
who hesitate not to call the Apostolic See a foreign 
power, fail in the faith due to the Catholic Church, if 
they are of the number of her sons ; or they assail the 
liberty that is her due, if they do not belong to her." 
By this subterfuge, he would have all Romanists, 
under pain and penalty, admit and affirm that he is 
as much a domestic imperial ruler in the United 
States of America, as he formerly was in the Roman 
States of Italy. Nor has he hesitated, nor have 
popes for a thousand years hesitated, to interfere 
with the Civil governments of various countries, 
endeavoring to stir up seditions, absolving subjects 
from their allegiance, deposing princes, and affirming 
absolute supremacy. Although Roman Catholic 
authorities, either ignorant of the facts, or wilfully 
perverting them, deny that the Pope assails and 
attempts to overturn civil government, Pius IX, pro- 
fessedly speaking in the name of Jesus Christ, to and 
concerning the governments of Italy, Germany, 
Spain, Switzerland and Brazil, (vv^hich governments 



70 Romanism and the llepublic. 

have deemed it expedient for their own domestic 
peace and protection to adopt certain measures 
which are designed to increase the liberties of the 
citizen who obeys the laws of the state,) compliments 
the faithful of the church on their hostility to these 
laws, and commends them for refusing to obey the 
laws and orders of the civil empire, rather than the 
most holy laws of their God and of the church. It 
was Pius IX. w^ho, in 1855, declared absolutely null 
and void all the acts of the government of Piedmont 
which he held prejudicial to the rights of religion. 
In the same year, because Spain had passed a law 
which permitted the toleration of non-Roman wor- 
ship and the secularization of ecclesiastical property, he 
declared, by his own apostolic authority, those laws 
to be abrogated, totally null and of no effect. So 
also on the 22nd of June, 1862, in another allocution, 
Pope Pius IX. recited the provisions of an Austrian 
law of the previous December, v/hich established 
freedom of opinion, of the press, of belief, of con- 
science, of education, and of religious profession, 
which regulated matrimonial jurisdiction and other 
matters ; and these he declared *' abominable " laws, 
which " have been and shall be totally void and with- 
out all force whatever." In almost identical phrase- 
ology he attempts to annul the law^s of Sardinia, and 
excommunicates all those who had a hand in them ; 
the laws of Mexico, which he judges to interfere with 
his rights, and declares them absolutely null and 
void. While on the 17th of September, 1863, in an 
encyclical letter enumerating jn'oceedings on the part 



Romanism and the Hepuhlic, 71 

of the ofovernment of New Granada, which had, amoDs: 
other things, estal)lished freedom of Tvorship, he 
declares these acts utterly unjust and impious, and 
by apostolic authority declares the whole null and 
void in the future and in the past." (Gladstone, 
^'Vaticanism," p. 176.) Here then, is the indictment 
which we frame ao-ainst this most arros^ant and 
tyrannical of rulers. A pontiff claiming infallibility, 
Avho has condemned free speech, free writing, a free 
press, toleration of nonconformity, liberty of con- 
science, the study of civil and philosophical matters 
in independence of ecclesiastical authority, marriage 
unless contracted in the Romish church, the definition 
by the state of the civil rights of the church, — who has 
demanded for the church therefore the title to define 
its own civil rights, together with a divine right to 
civil immunities, and a right to use physical force ; 
and who has also proudly asserted that the popes of 
the middle ages, with their councils, did not invade 
the rights of princes ; as, for example, Gregory VII. 
of the Emperor Henry IV. , Innocent III. , of Raymond 
of Toulouse; Paul III., in deposing Henry VIII; 
Pius v., in performing the like paternal office for 
Elizabeth of England, (" Vaticanism," page 56, ) — 
this intruder into governments, this scourge of nations, 
this enemy of independence therefore, claims, and 
claims from the month of July 1870 onwards, such 
plenary authority over every convert and member of 
his church, that he shall place his loyalty and civil 
duty at the mercy of another, that other being him- 
self. It is needless to say to you who have been 



72 Romanism, and the Hepublic, 

instructed in the principles of Bible Christianity 
and of civil freedom, that this is an assumption and 
exercise of the most intolerable tyranny. 

2. In the Encyclical and the Syllabus of 1864, 
the Pope denounces some of the dearest rights of 
man, because they are opposed to Komish absolutism. 
To you who are not familiar with these terms, I 
ma}^ say, that the word Encyclical is applied to a 
letter or communication written to the general public, 
the world at large, the church as a whole ; while the 
Syllabus is a similar document, containing those pro- 
positions, or heads of discourse, which sum up the 
leading ideas which the Pope wishes to communicate. 
Do not forget that these declarations of the Pope, by 
his own definition, and the definition of Romish 
councils, by the consent of Romish prelates, and 
undisputed and submitted to by the Roman Catholic 
church, have all the force of infallible authority and 
dogma. To dispute them, or refuse obedience to 
them, is to make a Roman Catholic a heretic, to put 
him under the ban of excommunication, and outside 
the pale of salvation. There is no dogma of faith 
or morals, no doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, that 
is more binding upon the conscience and obe- 
dience of the Roman Catholic, than are these 
Papal deliverances. There is no escape from yield- 
ing to them absolutely, except to break with the 
Roman Catholic church as a whole. With fearful 
epithets the Pope denounces those who insist that 
governments should not inflict penalties upon such 
as violate the Catholic religion. The withholding of 



Romanism and the liepublic. 73 

this power of punishment to protect the Catholic 
and no other, he calls a totally false notion of social 
government, because it leads to very erroneous 
opinions, most pernicious to the Catholic religion 
and to the salvation of souls. These opinions he 
calls insanity, and then proceeds to visit with his 
fiercest malediction, first, those who maintain the lib- 
erty of the press ; second, or the liberty of conscience 
and of worship ; third, or the liberty of speech ; 
fourth, those who contend that Papal judgments and 
decrees may without sin be disputed or difi'ered from 
unless they treat of the rules of faith or morals ; 
fifth, those who assign to the state the power to 
define the civil rights and province of the church ; 
sixth, he denounces those who hold that Roman 
Catholic Pontiffs and ecumenical councils have trans- 
gressed the limits of their power and usurped the 
rights of princes ; seventh, those who declare that 
the church may not employ force ; eighth, or that 
power not inherit in the oflSce of the episcopate, but 
granted to it by the civil authority, may be with- 
drawn from it at the discretion of that authority ; 
ninth, he anathematizes those who aflGirm that the 
civil immunity of the church and its minister 
depends upon civil right ; tenth, or that in the conflict 
of laws, civil and ecclesiastical, the civil laws should 
prevail ; eleventh, or that any method of instruc- 
tion, solely secular, maybe approved; twelfth, or. 
that knowledge of things philosophical and civil, 
should decline to be guided by divine and ecclesias- 
tical authority ; thirteenth, or that marriage is not, 



74 Romanism and the Republic, 

in its essence, a sacrament, that is, in the sense that 
the Komish Church understands a sacrament ; four- 
teenth, or that marriage, not sacramentally con- 
tracted, is of binding force, [the Pope's own expla- 
nation of this is, that all marriage, so called, outside 
the Roman Catholic church, is filthy concuhinage.'^ 
These are his own words, and this declaration, if 
generally received, as he insists it shall be, under 
penalty of eternal damnation, is a doctrine " horrible 
and revolting in itself, and dangerous to the morals 
of society, the structure of the family and the peace 
of life."] ; fifteenth, he anathematizes those who say 
that the abolition of the temporal power of the Pope- 
dom would be highly advantageous to the church ; 
sixteenth, or that any other religion than the Eoman 
religion may be established by the state ; seven- 
teenth, or that in countries called Catholic, the free 
exercise of other religions may be laudably allowed ; 
eighteenth, or that the Roman Pontiff ought to come 
to terms with progress, liberalism, and modern 
civilization. (Gladstone, *' Vaticanism," p. 31-2) 
I count it impossible that any American, on hearing 
these declarations first read, should realize it as con- 
ceivable that, in this generation, any ruler, espec- 
ially one who pretends to stand in place of God, 
should have the hardihood, the insolence, the audac- 
ity to pronounce curses and anathemas on those who 
maintain these principles of society and government. 
Do you not see, that almost everything we hold dear 
is here assailed? You are accursed of Rome who 
maintain liberty of conscience and free worship, as do 



Romanism and the Republic. 75 

all Protestants of whom I have knowledge ; or that 
freedom of speech which in every age has made 
possible the advance of nations, the redress of wrongs, 
and the progress of humanity. 

In these documents and orders of the Pope, we 
have him indorsing and affirming in express terms, 
that the Church of Rome has the absolute authority, 
which no civil power should transgress, to forbid 
freedom of worship, and exercise force to compel 
men to conform to that worship. He denomices 
Bible societies as a pest, and would stop all their 
presses and burn all their books, if he had the power. 
Here-affirms the decree of his predecessor, Clement 
Xn., that all his subjects be prohibited from becom- 
ing affiliated with any assembly of free-masons or 
rendering aid, succor, counsel or retreat to any 
members of that society under penalty of death, and 
pronounces a like penalty upon those who fail to 
denounce and reveal all that they know concerning 
that association. And here, contrary to every prin- 
ciple of just government, and in harmony with the 
most dreadful abuses and persecutions of the middle 
ages, the Pope affirms that Romish ecclesiastics shall 
not be amenable to the civil law — a direful doctrine ; 
and would evoke again the arm of the Inquisition, a 
power never repudiated by the Romish Church, and 
claimed and used by it wherever it is all-powerful, 
to blot out all other than Roman Catholic worship 
from the face of the earth. I confess that lans^uaofe 
is too weak to condemn these claims to power on the 
part of any body of men. But these are the official 



\^-^ 



76 Momanism and the Republic, 

expositions of the constitution of Romanism, these 
are the dogmas of this church, this is the authority 
which all Romanists are bound to obey under penalty 
of being denounced as heretics ; to this the Romish 
priesthood have lent themselves ; and this power, as 
incapable of being reconciled to the freedom of this 
nation as a rattlesnake within the folds of your dress 
of being reconciled to the safety and health of yonr 
body, is the power whose advance we attempt to 
stay, whose pretensions we disclose, and on whose 
machinations we endeavor to throw the light. 

3c Perhaps you now inquire. Do Roman Catholic 
hierarchs and prelates realize that these are the 
principles of the Papacy to which they are sworn ? 
Is it possible that men live under the Constitution 
and laws of this country who are believers in such 
tyranny, and waiting under oath to spread it? It is 
to be hoped that they do not all realize it ; and yet 
we have most adequate proof that the chief among 
them do. Bishop Gilmour, in his Lenten letter of 
March 1873, said : •' Nationalities must be subordi- 
nate to religion, and we must learn that we are 
Catholics first and citizens next. God is above man, 
and the church above the state." Cardinal McClos- 
key, who as Cardinal of Rome is a foreign prince 
exercising authority in the United States, contrary 
to the Constitution and the laws, says ; '* The Catho- 
lics of the United States are as strongly devoted to 
the sustenance and maintenance of the temporal 
power of the Holy Father as Catholics in any part 
of the world, and if it should be necessary to prove 



Romanism and the Republic. 77 

it by acts, they are ready to do so." What does he 
mean by this ? In a sermon preached when he was 
archbishop, Cardinal Manning put the following 
sentences in the mouth of the Pope : "I acknowledge 
no civil power, I am the subject of no prince, and I 
claim more than this ; I claim to be the supreme 
judge and director of the conscience of men, of the 
peasant that tills the fields, and of the prince that 
sits upon the throne, of the household that lives in 
the shade of privacy, and the legislator that makes 
laws for kingdoms ; I am the sole, last, supreme 
judge of what is right and wrong." He also says : 
"Moreover, I declare, affirm, define and pronounce 
it to be necessary to salvation for every human 
creation to be subject to the Eoman Pontiff." What 
this subjection means we may learn from Cardinal 
Bellarmine. He says : " If the Pope should err by 
enjoining vices or forbidding virtues, the Church 
would be obliged to believe vices to be good and 
virtues bad, unless it would sin against conscience." 
Horrible and monstrous ! Every bishop of the 
Eoman Catholic Church in America and througfh- 
out the world, and every archbishop, has taken 
an oath of devotion to the Papacy, in which occur 
the following words : " I will from henceforward be 
faithful and obedient to St. Peter, the apostle, to the 
Holy Roman Church, and to our Lord the Pope, and 
to his successors canonically entering. That counsel 
with which they shall entrust by themselves, their 
messengers or letters, I will not, knowingly, reveal 
to any, to their prejudice : I will help them to 



78 Romanism and the Republic. 

define and keep the Roman Papacy and the royalties 
of St. Peter, saving ray Lord, against all men. The 
rights, honors, privileges and authority of the holy 
Romish church, of our Lord the Pope and his afore- 
said successors, I will endeavor to preserve, defend, 
increase and advance. I will not be in any council, 
action or authority, in which shall be applied, against 
our said Lord and the said Roman Church, anything 
to the hurt or prejudice of their persons, right, 
honor, state or power ; and if I shall know any such 
thing to be tried or agitated by any whatsoever, I 
will hinder it to my utmost, and, as soon as I can, 
will signify it to our said Lord, or to some other by 
whom it may come to his knowledge. The rules of 
the Holy Fathers, the apostolic decrees, ordinances 
or disposals, reservations, provisions and mandates, 
I will observe with all my might ; and cause to be 
observed by others. Heretics^ schismatics and rebels 
to our said Lord, or his aforesaid successors, I will, 
to my utmost, persecute and oppose,'' etc. (Bowling's 
"History of Romanism," pages 615-16). 

Here, then, is the oath of allegiance by which 
these dignitaries of the Romish church are absolutely 
pledged to enforce the doctrines of the encyclical and 
syllabus ; to oppose and persecute all who, like you 
and me, reject those doctrines, and to observe the 
profoundest secrecy in all things where they think 
the interests of the Pope will be subserved. 

And more than this, if it were possil)le for conspir- 
acy, hatred of free institutions and of Protestantism, 
and antagonism to the word of God and the spirit of 



Romanism and the Republic. 79 

progress, to go farther than these have ah'eady gone 
in their allegiance to this hateful and tyrannous 
power, they have done so in yielding themselves up 
to believe, that not only the past declarations of the 
Pope shall absolutely control their actions, but, if 
perchance at any time in the future he could exceed 
these limits of oppression, tyranny and hatred of 
human rights, by any mandate whatsoever, they would 
also obey that. The Oatholic World of Aug. 1871, 
in an article upon Infallibility, sets this doctrine forth 
thus: " A Catholic must not only believe what the 
church now proposes to his belief, but be ready to 
believe whatever she may hereafter propose : he must 
therefore be ready to give up any or all of his pre- 
vious opinions so soon as they are condemned and 
prescribed by competent authority." 

It is some comfort to find that an Irish Catholic ex- 
Congressman of Chicago, with a manliness which we 
trust exists in the breasts of thousands of others of 
our fellow-citizens, has dared to say : " The Pope of 
Rome [ speaking of his interference with Irish affairs 
of late,] has no power to damn me, or any other Cath- 
olic. His latest utterance is an outrage on Irish- 
Catholic manhood and womanhood. The Pope of 
Rome, an Italian prince, with an Italian policy to 
carry out, at no matter what expense to the other 
Catholic people, is a fair subject for Irish criticism, 
and it is from this standpoint I criticize him. I am 
a Catholic, I am a believer in the Catholic church ; 
but I am an Irishman and not an Italian, and I am 
not to be sacrificed for the needs of Italian diplom- 



80 Homanism and the Republic, 

acy/' Such statements would multiply, and even 
stronger than this, if those Romanists who have 
imbibed, to some extent, the free spirit of Protestant 
America, would intelligently consider what the 
demands of the Papal power are upon them, and to what 
they would be reduced if they submitted to the prin- 
ciples on which it rules. 

4. I cannot leave this subject without calling your 
attention to the utter absurdity and blasphemy of the 
Papal claim. This might be done and proofs fur- 
nished at great length ; but I am compelled to be 
brief, only for lack of time. The proofs are most 
ample and adequate. You have only to read the 
history of the Popes, as written by Hallam, Ranke, 
or any of the greatest historians of the world, to 
readily see that no class of men in the annals of time 
could more inappropriately assume to be infallible, 
much less divine, than these very Popes of Rome. 
Many of these infallible Popes have been as infamous 
for the laxity of their morals and the enormity of 
their crimes, as they have been for the wickedness of 
their pretensions. As an example of folly. Pope 
Urban VIII. infallibly denied the Copernican theory 
propounded by Galileo, that the sun is the centre of 
the solar system, and that the earth moves around it. 
The ridiculousness of this is not so great as of the 
Popes who have antagonized one another even to the 
extent of murder, all being infallible ; of the Popes 
who have blessed what their predecessors have anath- 
ematized, and have cursed that on which their pre- 
decessors pronounced their benediction ; of the Popes 



Momanism and the Republic, 81 

who have contended and protested against each other 
at Rome and Avignon, when two Papal courts were 
being carried on at once by rival Popes. Think of 
Pope John XXIII., who at the Council of Constance 
was dethroned from the Papal chair because of the 
universal detestation felt for his crimes, — crimes no 
greater than those of Benedict VIII. , or a score of 
others who mio:ht be named. 

Yet all these, according to the law of the Roman 
Catholic church, however infamous their lives, are 
equally infallible, and are permitted to exercise their 
official powers over cardinals, archbishops, bishops 
or priests, whatever the impurity of their behavior 
or the wickedness of thier conduct, and after death 
are canonized as " saints." And as if it were not 
enough that the characters of so many of these Popes 
have been as vile as their pretensions have been 
absurd, it is only too true that the Papal court which 
has surrounded them, the advisers who have largely 
controlled them until the present time, have in many 
instances been guilty of like infamies with the worst 
of the Popes. 

Of Cardinal Antonelli, who was prime minister of 
Pius IX., a French Catholic writer thus speaks; 
** He was born in a den of thieves ; he seems a min- 
ister engrafted on a savage. All classes of society 
hated him equally." And of the Papacy, under his 
influence and direction, Gattina says, after speak- 
ing of *' the thefts, the villanies, the rudeness of this 
cardinal": "Under Antonelli's guidance it is like 
the subterranean sewers of large cities ; it carries all 



82 Romanism and the Republic, 

the filth. When it is stopped and filtered, it spreads 
infection and death." No wonder that the Koman 
Catholic hierarchy would forbid the study of history 
in the public schools, unless that history has passed 
through their sifting^ for it must largely, if true, be 
a history of the infamy of the court of Rome, of the 
scandalous wickedness of the Popes, and of the high- 
handed political measures which have been suggested 
and advanced by the Roman Catholic Church. I 
close with a few reflections on the predictions of 
Roman Catholics as to the Romish Church in the 
United States, and on the growth of Romanism among 
us, which, considering the policy which has been out- 
lined, may well startle and alarm all thoughtful 
hearers. Father Hecker says, that ** ere long there 
is to be a state religion in this country, and that state 
reliction is to be Roman Catholic." The Boston Pilot 
says: "The man to-day is living who will see the 
majority of the people of the American continent 
Roman Catholics." 

A former Bishop of Cincinnatti declares, that " effect- 
ual plans are in operation to give us a com[)lete vic- 
tory over Protestantism." The Bishop of Charlestown 
affirms, that " within thirty years the Protestant 
heresy will come to an end." While Pope Gregory 
XVI., a half a century ago, declared : *' Out of the 
Roman States, there is no country where I am Pope, 
except in the United States. (Strong's "Our 
Country," page 55.) 

The Roman Catholic Church in the United States 
is growing with great rapidity. In 1800, the Roman- 



Romanism and the Republic, 83 

ist population was 100,000 ; in 1884, it was over six 
and one-half millions, — - had increased sixty-fold ; at 
the beginning of the century there was one Romanist 
to every fifty-three of the population ; in 1850, one 
to fourteen ; in 1870, one to eight and one-half; in 
1880, one to seven and seven-tenths. Wonderful as 
has been the growth of the country, the Romanist 
church has grown more rapidly. From 1800 to 1880, 
the population has increased nine-fold ; the member- 
ship of all evangelical churches, twenty-seven fold ; 
and the Romanist population, sixty-three fold. In 
1850, the Romanist church was nearly one-half as 
larsfe as all the Evan«;elical Protestant churches ; let 
us look at their relative progress since that time. 
From 1830 to 1880, the population increased 116 per 
cent. ; the communicants of evangelical churches, one 
and a half times as fast, or 185 per cent. ; the Roman- 
ist population, 294 per cent., nearly two and a half 
times as rapidly as the population. From 1850 to 
1880, the number of Evangelical churches increased 
125 per cent. ; during the same period, Romanist 
churches increased 447 per cent., nearly four times 
as fast. From 1870 to 1880, a period of ten years, 
the churches of all Evangelical denominations 
increased 49 per cent., while Romanist churches mul- 
tiplied 74 per cent., one and a half times as fast. 
During the same period the ministers of evangelical 
churches increased in number 46 per cent. Romish 
priests, 61 per cent. From 1850 to 1870, evangeli- 
cal ministers increased 86 per cent. ; priests, 204 per 
cent., or as 2 J to 1. From 1850 to 1880, minis- 



84 Romanism and the Republic. 

ters increased 173 per cent., and priests 391 per 
cent., more than double. Rome, with characteristic 
foresight, is concentrating her strength in the Western 
territories. As the West is to dominate the nation, 
she intends to dominate the West. In the United 
States, a little less than one-eighth of the population 
is Romanist, in the territories, taken together, more 
than one-third. (Dr. Strong's *' Our Country.") 

In the whole country there are not quite two-thirds 
as many Romanists as there are members of the Evan- 
gelical churches. Not including Arizona and New 
Mexico, which have a large native Romanist popula- 
tion, the six remaining territories had, in 1880, four 
times as many Romanists as there were members of 
Protestant denominations collectively. And includ- 
ing Arizona and New Mexico, Rome had eighteen 
times as many as all Protestant bodies. When 
the Jesuits were driven out of Berlin, they declared 
that they would plant themselves in the Eastern 
territories of America ; this they have done, and 
under the absolute dictation of the Pope, they are 
endeavoring to spread the intolerant, persecuting 
monarchy which we have reviewed. Whoever fails 
to note their purpose, and whoever is indifterent to 
their designs, must be willing to be a slave to a foreign 
potentate and to see the hopes of the world uprooted 
in the subjugation of America to the merciless tyranny 
of the Inquisition. 

I have stated the actual truth so mildly that I 
almost ought to apologize. For every fact and cita- 
tion that I have brought, for every audacious Papal 



Romanism and the Hepublic. 85 

claim, every authorized Romanistic principle contrary 
to our liberties, for every historic proof ot" the wicked- 
ness and immorality of Popes, I can cite, from equally 
unimpeachable sources, fiVQ times as many more. 

Thus, before the American Christian public, as the 
high court of jurisdiction, I indict the Pope of Rome 
as the representative of the Papal policy, the repre- 
sentative whom they put forward to stand for the 
whole church in its antagonism to civil and religious 
freedom, against which he has committed high crimes 
and misdemeanors. 

I impeach him in the name of liberty of conscience, 
whose rights he has denied ; I impeach him in the 
name of freedom of worship, whose temples he would 
close ; I impeach him. in the name of a free press and 
free speech, whose voice he would smother in the 
smoke of fire and faggot ; I impeach him in the name 
of civil liberty, over whose just laws he has pro- 
claimed the sovereignty of Romish councils ; I impeach 
him in the name of the marriage-bond of the major- 
ity of the happy households of the Christian world, * 
which he has stigmatized as '* filthy concubinage," 
because not contracted in the Romish church ; I 
impeach him in the name of Protestantism, which 
he calls '* heresy" and against which he invokes the 
persecution of the civil government and the tortures of 
the Inquisition. In the name of progress, which he 
has tried in vain to stay; of modern civilization, 
with which he cannot be reconciled ; in the name of 
the free and enlightened governments of the world, 
against whose most beneficient laws he has hurled 



S6 Homanism and the Repuhlic, 

his anathemas ; in the name of the Holy Bible, 
whose free circulation he has pronounced a pest ; in 
the name of free America, whose overthrow he has 
plotted ; in the name of Almis^hty God, whose pre- 
rogatives he has blaphemously usurped : in the name 
of all these, I impeach the Pope and the hierarchy 
which dominate the Eoman Catholic Church, and 
summon them to the bar of oppressed humanity and 
of Divine Justice, 



Sermon W. 



ROMANISM ANTAGONISTIC TO THE CONSTITUTION 
AND THE LAWS. 



" Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as 
the Lord uiy God commanded me, tliat ye shall do so in the land 
"whither you go to possess it. Keep, therefore, and do them; 
for tills is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of 
the nations, which shall liear all these statutes and say, Surely 
this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what 
nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the 
Lord our God is in all things that we call upon hira for ? " — 
Deut. 4: 5, 6. 

All the earlier parts of the Christian Scriptures 
relate nearly as much to national as to personal 
life. The origin, consolidation, liberation and 
nationalization of the people of Israel shows the 
interest of Almighty God in the forms of govern- 
ment of great peoples. Our text exalts the char- 
acter of those laws and political principles which 
became the basis of the Jewish state. Every- 
where through both the Old and the New Testa- 
ment, we find patriotic devotion to the nation 
mingled with profoundest reverence for God. The 
patriarchs who laid the foundations of the Jewish 
state, the law-givers, judges and prophets who came 
after them, all are animated with ardent devotion to 
their country. This is particularly noticeable in the 



88 Romanism and the Republic, 

words of the prophets, especially in the greater 
prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel ; who, like 
Moses, the law-giver, were as truly statesmen as they 
were teachers of religious truth. And it misjht truth- 
fully be said, that the Bible is a book of patriotism. 
While the Jewish people were called the chosen of 
God, it is scarcely less evident that our own country, 
owing to the peculiar circumstances of its birth and 
the origin of its laws, is in some sense a chosen 
people. When or where was ever a nation founded, 
or what nation has ever been so looked to by all the 
world as holding a providential place for the exalta- 
tion of all peoples and the advancement of liberty 
throughout the earth? It may be that, like the 
Hebrew nation, we shall not wholly fulfill our mis- 
sion ; but certainly, it behooves us to put forth every 
endeavor so to do. If this nation shall do as the 
Israelites were counselled to do ; if we shall obey the 
statutes and judgments which God has given us ; if 
it shall be our wisdom and understandins: to make 
these laws and this constitution, which are praised 
throuo^hout the world, the corner-stone of our future, 
then it can be said of us, that there is no nation so 
great that hath judgments and statutes so righteous 
as all this law which has been left us by our ftithers, 
under which we have hitherto lived. 

The Constitution of the United States is not only 
extraordinary in its quality, but equally so in its 
history. As a basis of national life, it has received 
the encomiums of the most advanced and liberal 
statesmen throughout the world. It could not b^ 



Homanism and the Republic, 89 

called, in its origin, a theory of government merely ; 
although no nation before had a constitution like it. 
But it was based on the wisest maxims of political 
philosophy, on the profoundest views of human 
rights, on the highest law of obligation to God in 
the relations of men, and was deduced from the his- 
tory of other nations and other peoples in their 
failure to meet the public want, and to create a 
happy and free people. 

Although the document which we call the Consti- 
tution of the United States is not perfect in all its 
parts, and has been amended from time to time by the 
wisdom of the whole body politic, yet, through the 
mercy of God and his overruling providence, great 
good has come out of it. As a basis of laws, it may 
be said that those of no other country furnish so 
broad a foundation for universal happiness and pros- 
perity. If we contrast this fundamental law with 
that of Russia under an absolute monarch, or of 
Germany under a monarchy scarcely less abso- 
lute — if we compare it with the government of Eng- 
land, whose constitution is a cumbrous mass of pre- 
cedents, giving privileges to a state church and a 
hereditary nobility — indeed, if we compare it with 
the constitution of any land, we may justly affirm in 
words, what is emphatically declared by the immense 
immigration which has come into this country, that 
our Constitution is recognized as the best, and its 
practical fruitage is the richest. The noblest com- 
ment that can be made upon our system of govern- 
ment in the United States, upon its authority and its 



90 Romanism and the Republic. 

laws, is seen in the extraordinary growth and pros- 
perity not only of the nation as a whole, but of the 
states and families of the nation. Surely, such a 
country, created out of such laws, is worth our care. 
The subversion of this government, by internal foes or 
by external assailants, could but entail calamity upon 
the whole human race, and we are sure that the 
government can never be subverted, nor its adminis- 
tration overthrown, unless the principles of the Con- 
stitution are abandoned to the assaults of open 
enemies, or the treachery of hidden foes. Such 
abandonment, either through our indiiFerence or our 
feebleness, must inevitably be followed by the over- 
throw of our privileges and the ruin of all our pros- 
perity. 

Over a single word or clause in our Constitution 
we fought a terrific civil war. That w^ord was 
"Union.'* To prove ourselves a Nation, to vindi- 
cate that one idea of the constitution, we spent our 
thousands of millions of dollars and hundreds of 
thousands of lives ; and yet no intelligent son of 
America to-day hesitates to affirm that all this 
expenditure was not too much to preserve and vin- 
dicate the unity of the United States, Can we doubt 
that other portions of our Constitution which relate 
to the rights of citizens and their protection, are 
equally worthy of defence ? But no words of praise 
from us are needed to vindicate this all-important 
document, since scarcely a statesman of our country, 
or of any liberal government lives, but has assisted in 
voicing the universal judgment of freemen in praise 
of our Constitution. 



Homanism and the Repuhlic. 91 

Against this ^ the most open, pronounced enemy of 
every principle of the United States, is the Roman 
Catholic Church. Whether we speak of the source 
of political power as defined in our Constitution, of 
the supremacy of that law or of its several parts with 
their theory of human rights, or even when we speak 
of the formation of the executive and legislative bodies 
of the government as embodied in its provisions, or 
the administration of justice — every one of these par- 
ticulars is denounced, assailed and anathematized by 
the Roman Catholic Church. And, since that church 
has come to claim supremacy over at least one-tenth, 
perhaps one-eighth, of our population, and to exer- 
cise political power through the manipulation of 
resident prelates in the interests of a foreign poten- 
tate, it is high time that we proceed to show its real 
hostility, and to protect, while we may, the Palladium 
of our liberties, 

1. ** We, the people of the United States," says 
the Preamble to the Constitution, " in order to pro- 
mote a more perfect union, establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquility, provide for the common de- 
fence, promote the general welfare and secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do 
ordain and establish this Constitution for the United 
States of America." Here is a plain declaration that 
the people, under God, are supreme, that they are the 
source of political power ; that they, by their repre- 
sentatives and in their capacity as citizens, have the 
right given of God, of self-government. To this 
agrees the form of many of the state constitutions ; 



92 Romanism and the Republic. 

as for instance, that of the State of New York, which 
announces the same doctrine in these words : " We, 
the people of the State of New York, grateful to 
Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its 
blessings, do establish this constitution." 

Against this first principle of our national govern- 
ment, the Papacy announces the Pope as the origin 
of the rights of states, as the supreme judge in all 
matters of law, and affirms, as we showed in the pre- 
vious discourse, everywhere the supremacy of the 
church and its ecclesiastics over the state and its peo- 
ple. Pope Leo XIII., the present pope, says, in his 
encyclical; "It is not lawful to follow one rule in 
private conduct and another in the government of the 
state : to wit, that the authority of the church should 
be observed in private life, but rejected in state mat- 
ters." Says Pius IX. , in his Syllabus : "It is an error 
to believe that the Roman Pontiff can and ought to 
reconcile himself to and agree with progress, liberal- 
ism and civilization, as lately introduced." This 
demand was sufficiently exposed when previously 
considered. Note now another particular in which 
the Romish church is in direct antagonism to the 
Constitution of the United States. 

2. The Constitution is the supreme law of the 
land, the final test of civil duty. In substantiation 
of this fact, we observe that the final court of appeal 
in America is the Supreme Court of the United 
States, whose chief function is, to decide whether a 
law is constitutional or not. If any law made by 
the several states, or by any one of them, is found to 



Romanism and the Republic. 93 

be inharmonious with the Constitution, it is pro- 
nounced null and void. And so the most dignified 
court in the world recosfnizes as its law our Consti- 
tution. 

But Romanism confesses no such supremacy in any 
civil law or in any legislation. The only law which 
shall govern the Pope is his own will, and the will 
of the Pope is the law of church and state. 

He can abrogate constitutions, pronounce legisla- 
tive enactments null and void, call upon all Roman- 
ists to break and violate such laws, and has repeat- 
edly commended his followers for setting the laws of 
states at defiance. In an encyclical, the Pope says: 
*' The Romish church has a right to exercise its au- 
thority ivithoutany limits set to it by the civil jpoioer : 
the Pojpe and thejpriests ought to have dominion over 
temiDoral affairs : the Romish church and her ecclesi- 
astics have a right to immunity from civil law : in 
case of conflict between ecclesiastical and civil powers 
the ecclesiastical powers ought to prevail." (Strong's 
".Our Country," page 50.) "The Romish church 
alone arrogates to herself the right to speak to the 
state not as a subject but as a superior ; not as plead- 
ing the right of a conscience staggered by the fear of 
sin, but as a vast Incorporation, setting up a rival 
law against the state in the state's own domain, and 
claiming for it, with a higher sanction, the title to 
similar coercive means of enforcement. The Pope 
himself is foreign and not responsible to the law. 
The large part of his power is derived from foreign 
sources. He claims to act, and acts, not by Individ- 



94 Romanism and the Republic, 

uals but on masses. He claims to teach them, so 
often as he chooses, what to do at each point of their 
contact with the laws of their country. The Pope 
takes into his own hand the power which he thinks 
the state to have misused. Not merely does he aid 
or direct the consciences of those who object, but he 
even overrules the consciences of those who approve. 
Above all, he pretends to annul the law itself. The 
right to override all the states of the world, and to 
cancel their acts, within limits assio'nable from time 
to time to, but not by those states, and the title to 
do battle with them, as soon as it may be practicable 
and expedient, with their own proper weapon and 
last sanction of exterior force, has been sedulously 
brought more and more into view of late years. The 
centre of the operation has lain in the Society of 
Jesuits. The infallible, that is virtually divine, title 
of command, and the absolute, that is the uncondi- 
tional duty to obey, in 1870, were promulgated to an 
astonished world." (Gladstone, " Vaticanism," pages 
172-74.) 

The American prelates of the Romish church, 
assembled in the Baltimore council, commenting on 
the authority of the Papal Syllabus, affirm that it 
does not appertain to the civil power to define what 
are the rig^hts and limits within which the church 
may exercise authority: that its authority must be 
decided upon by itself, that is, by the Pope, and 
exercised without the permission and assent of the 
civil government : and that, in the case of conflicting 
laws, between the two powers, the laws of the church 



Romanism and the Republic, 95 

must prevail over those of the state. They insist 
that the state is bound to recognize the Roman Cath- 
olic Church as the sole depository of the delegated 
power to decide what laws shall be obeyed and what 
disobeyed. To permit a church, any church, to 
decide upon the validity or invalidity of our laws 
after enactment, or to dictate beforehand what laws 
should or should not be passed, would be to deprive 
the people of all the authority they have retained in 
their own hands, and to make such church the gov- 
erning power, instead of them. Yet, understanding 
this perfectly well, and evidently contemplating the 
time when they might possibly be able to bring 
about this condition of affairs, these Papal represen- 
tatives directly assail a principle which has been uni- 
versal in all our state governments, from their foun- 
dation : that which regulates by law the holding of 
real estate by churches and other corporations, and 
requires them to conform, in this temporal matter, to 
the stal^te laws of the states. ( Thompson's " Papacy 
and Civil Power," pages 42 and 45.) 

The Second National Council of the Roman Cath- 
olic hierarchy, was held at Baltimore in October, 
1866. This plenary council, — the highest Roman 
Catholic authority in this country, but of course 
absolutely subordinate to the Pope, who dictated its 
policy before its session, protested against the con- 
trol of ecclesiastical property by the civil laws of the 
several commonwealths ; and a Romanist authority 
remarks on one of its utterances, "The desire of 
gradually introducing in this country, as far as 



96 Romanism and the Republic. 

practicable, the ecclesiastical discipline prevalent 
throughout almost the entire church, was strongly 
and repeatedly expressed by the fathers of the late 
National Council of Baltimore. Its decrees tend 
both avowedly and implicitly to promote the accom- 
plishment of this object." Here is the express declar- 
ation of principles of hostility and irreconcilable var- 
iance of the Romish church against the Constitution 
of the United States. 

Now, while every American citizen is sworn to 
support the Constitution, and every Roman Catholic 
holding office in the United States is so obligated, 
the question occurs whether, as between the obligation 
to the Constitution of the United States and the con- 
trary demand of the Church, they will as patriots 
support the State, or as Romanists support the 
Church. 

Peter Dens, the great authority and commentator 
on ecclesiastical law in the Romish church, who has 
been a standard with them for a hundred years, 
defines the principles of the common law of that 
church, among which are the following : *' The Pope 
can dispense with any law. The Constitutions and 
decrees of the Pope are explanations of the divine 
law, and are therefore binding as soon as known. The 
church does not recognize the right in any govern- 
ment to say whether or not the pontifical decrees 
shall be enforced. She is supreme and independent, 
and therefore can admit of no intermeddling with her 
authority. The Pope's temporal power is necessary 
to the free exercise of his spiritual authority. He 



Romanism and the Republic. 97 

derives his jurisdiction immediately from God, and 
imparts a share of the plenitude of his power to his 
bishops. Ecclesiastical property must be governed 
by the laws of the church. The state ought to 
recognize and carry into effect the laws of the church. 
By these, laymen have no right to property in the 
church, and it is against the law of God for them to 
dispose of its revenue. 

" The coercive power of the church includes the 
power to punish the insubordinate, and repress the 
lawless, which extends to any punishment short of 
the shedding of blood, such as imprisonment in mon- 
asteries and other chastisements." ( Thompson's 
'* Papacy and the Civil Power," pages 608-10.) 
The Pope, then, can grant a dispensation as it is 
called, excusing any Komanist, whatever his oaths to 
the Constitution of the United States, from keeping 
those oaths, and justifying him in breaking any law, 
whatever that law, that the Pope shall denounce. 
The exercise of authority over political opinion, as we 
said in our first discourse, is the theory, as it is 
the practice, of the Roman Catholic Church. You 
may find in Roman Catholic bookstores a little book 
written by Monseigneur Segur, a Frenchman, 
entitled, "Plain Talk about the Protestantism of 
To-day." This book, which we shall have occasion 
to refer to several times hereafter, is highly com- 
mended by the ecclesiastics of the church, and its 
author has received the thanks of the Pope himself. 
I wish you all might read it. As concerning the 
point we are now making, that the Pope has abso- 



98 Homanism and the R&public, 

lute power to abrogate all constitutions and to com- 
mand all his subjects to disobey the laws of any 
country in which they live, if he chooses so to do, 
Mons. Segur says ; " The authority of the church is a 
guard over human understanding in whatever, 
directly or indirectly, affects religion ; which means, 
in every kind of doctrines, religious, philosophical, 
scientific, political, etc^ Please emphasize in your 
minds this word political. In connection with all 
else that we have secured from Romanistic sources, 
Archbishop Manning says: ''The principles of 
ethics, and therefore of politics as a branch of ethics, 
all lie in the theolo^^ical order." This is sufficient to 
establish every claim to political obedience. Hence, 
if the Pope shall declare that any political opinions 
are wrong, unjust, or immoral, the declaration must 
be held by all obedient children of the Church to be 
unerringly and indisputably true ; and to save them- 
selves from excommunication for heresy, they must 
make exterminating war upon all such opinions. 
Hence, also, if he shall declare that any existing 
government is opposed to the welfare of the church, 
and, therefore, to the law of God, the same result must 
follow. And hence again, if he shall declare that the 
government of the United States is unjust, and an 
act of usurpation, because it gives license to the 
heresy of Protestantism ; because it repudiates the 
doctrine of the "divine riojht" of kini^s ; because it 
allows the people to make their own laws ; because 
it requires the Roman Catholic hierarchy to obey the 
laws thus made ; because it does not recognize the 



Romanism and the Republic. 99 

Roman Catholic religion as the only true religion ; 
because it recognizes the right of each individual to 
interpret the Scriptures for himself, and to enter- 
tain whatsoever relis^ious belief his own conscience 
and reason shall approve, or none at all, if he shall 
think fit ; because it has separated Church and State, 
and denies the rifijht of the Church to subordinate 
the State to any of its laws ; because it not only tol- 
erates, but fosters and protects, free thought, free 
speech, and a free press ; and because it is, on 
account of any and all of these things, in open viola- 
tion of the Romish law, and therefore heretical, — does 
not every man of common sense see that the Papal 
followers must select between conformity to his opin- 
ions and excommunication? between obedience to 
him, and the forfeiture of eternal salvation? between 
resistance to the government and his pontifical curse ? 
between treason and hierarchical denunciation? 
(" The Papacy and the Civil Power," page 153.) 

Against the origin of our Constitution, against the 
principles which it sets forth, against the freedom 
which it provides, Rome stands, the champion of abso- 
lutism, hating republics in the principles of their 
government, and standing for the divine right of 
kings to exercise unrestricted authority over their 
subjects, or authority restricted only by the law of 
the Pope. This hostility has been shown toward the 
Republic of France. The descendant of the Bour- 
bons, the Count de Chambord, was the fiivorite of 
the Papacy, and Pope Pius IX. used all his influence 
to elevate him to the throne which the French 



100 Romanism and the RejpubUc. 

Republic had thrown down ; because, as Segur says : 
" This descendant of kmgs had given solemn prom- 
ise that, once on the throne of France, he will take 
up the cause of the Pope ; and then the sword of 
Charlemagne shall spring from its scabbard and con- 
voke, as of old, the Catholic peoples to the rescue 
of Rome from the miserable and despicable Italian 
apostates." 

These apostates are Victor Emanuel, and Cavour 
and Garibaldi, with all who have helped to create 
modern Italy, and rescue it from Papal tyranny. 
And it is to the book containing these sentiments of 
hostility to republics that Pius IX. has given his 
approbation and his benediction, in an affectionate 
letter addressed to M. Segur as his *' beloved son." 
What should we say if the Pope should formally 
declare the laws of the Constitution of our country 
null and void, as he practically has already the First 
Amendment, and other material portions of that Con- 
stitution? What should Ave say, v/ere he to send his 
Allocutions to North America, as he has to South 
America within the last forty years, pronouncing 
null and void our laws? For I would not permit 
you to forget, that since 1855 the Pope, inciting 
sedition in the several states, has taken upon him to 
declare null and void the laws of New Granada (this 
was in 1863) ; the laws of Mexico in 1856 ; the laws 
of Sardinia in 1855 ; the laws of Austria in 1862 ; 
those of Spain in 1855 ; and of Piedmont in the 
same year. And in every case, the laws which he 
pronounced null are essential parts of the American 



Romanism and the Republic, 101 

Constitution and of our common law. An irrepressi- 
ble conflict will exist between the Papacy and the 
Constitution of the United States, until one or the 
other is destroyed. Which shall it be? I answer, 
Kot the constitution of the United States ! 

3. But Rome's antagonism to the Constitution as 
a whole, will be more manifest when we note how 
utterly irreconcilable it is with the several parts of 
the o^reat document. 

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States reads as follows: *' Article 1. Con- 
gress shall make no law respecting the establishment 
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; 
or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press ; 
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and 
to petition the government for a redress of griev- 
ances." The Constitution of the State of New York, 
Article First, section third, reads : " The free exer- 
cise and enjoyment of religious profession and wor- 
ship without discrimination or preference shall forever 
be allowed in this State to all mankind." The Con- 
stitution of Massachusetts contains the same senti- 
ment. The meaning and cause of these enactments 
is obvious to every one, not only in the essential 
justice and righteousness of such laws, but in the 
dreadful history of many European states, which, in 
their endevor to force upon their subjects a religion 
or form of worship which did not commend itself to 
the conscience of the people, have devastated their 
fairest provinces, destroyed the lives of thousands 
of their loyal subjects, and interfered with the gen- 



102 Romanism and the JRepublic. 

eral prosperity of society and of the state. Mind- 
ful of these horrors, our fathers, who themselves 
were exiled for conscience sake, wisely decided that 
only that religion could control a man's life and 
ennoble his character which he had voluntarily 
received in good conscience from God ; and that 
with this understanding they made a good law, 
founded on a righteous decision, the prosperity of 
the Church and of the State in the United States 
equally attests. 

Hear now the contrary doctrine of the Pope. 
January 1, 1870, Cardinal Antonelli, in behalf of 
Pope Pius IX., wrote to the Bishop of Mcaraugua : 
*' We have lately been informed here that an attempt 
has been made to chanofe the order of thino^s in 
that Republic by publishing programmes in which are 
enunciated freedom of education and ivorship. 
Both of these principles are contrary to the laws of 
God and of the Church.^' Or listen to the Papal 
law in the letter of Pope Pius IX. to the unfortunate 
Maximillian in Mexico. This you may read in 
'*Appleton's Annual Encyclopedia for 1865," p. 749 : 
*'To repair the evils occasioned by the revolution, 
and to bring back as soon as possible happy da3^s for 
the Church, the Roman Catholic religion must above 
all things continue to be the glory and mainstay of 
the Mexican nation, to the exclusion of every other 
dissenting worship. That no person may obtain the 
faculty of teaching and publishing false tenets ; that 
instruction, whether public or private, should be 
directed and ivatched over by the ecelesiastical author^ 



Romanism and the RepuhUc, 103 

ity ; and that, in short, the chains may be broken 
which, up to the present time, have held down the 
church in a state of dependence and subject to 
the arbitrary rule of a civil government." Can you 
find any correspondence, any harmony, any possi- 
bility of reconciliation between the Constitution of 
the United States and these declarations of the high- 
est Papal authority? It is impossible. They are 
exactly contradictory. 

Proposition 78 of the Papal Syllabus condemns 
the principle of toleration which allows the recog- 
nition of other religions beside the Roman Catholic. 
Therein the Pope anathematizes the proposition that, 
*' It has been wisely provided by law in some countries 
called Catholic, that persons coming to reside therein 
shall enjoy the public exercise of their own relig- 
ion." Thus all relio'ious toleration is sti^rmatized as 
an error. WJiich shall we have in America? Which 
will Roman Catholics support? Which will you 
admit, the principle of the Constitution, that Con- 
gress shall not legislate concerning the establishment 
of religion ; or the principle of the Papacy, that the 
State shall legislate in favor solely of the Romish 
Church ? 

The prohibition of the free exercise of religion, 
concernino^ which the Constitution declares Cono:ress 
shall make no law, is antagonized by the express 
declaration of the Pope, that no other religion than 
the Roman Catholic may be established or tolerated 
by the state. We grow sick of the iteration and 
reiteration of this bigoted but central principle of 
Romanism. 



104 Homanism and the Republic. 

In the prohibition of the free exercise of religion, 
the Roman Catholic Church appeals not only to law 
and anathema but to physical punishment, affirming 
the absolute duty of the civil power to use force, and 
the right of the Church to coerce those who choose 
to worship after another manner and form. Little 
does it matter whether the Church exercise this 
power immediately through inquisitors, or indirectly 
through a subservient state. Dr. Newman, descant- 
ing on the title of the Church to employ force, says, 
though he inclines to the milder side and limits the 
kind of force : *' The lighter punishments, those tem- 
poral and corporal, such as shutting up in monaster- 
ies and prisons, flogging, and others of the same kind, 
short of the effusion of blood, the Church, by her 
own right, can inflict." The brief or letter of Inno- 
cent III. says: ** We are able also, and bound to 
coerce." The Jesuit Shrader, with a Papal appro- 
bation, gives us the following affirmative proposi- 
tion, answering to the negative condemnation of the 
Syllabus: ''The church has the power to apply 
external coercion ; she has also a temporal authority, 
direct and indirect ;" and appends the remark : " Not 
souls alone are subject to her authority." — 
Gladstone, *' Vaticanism," p. 162-4. 

*' Undoubtedly," says Cardinal Manning, quoting 
with approbation from the doctrines maintained by 
Bellerini, " unity with the Roman faith is absolutely 
necessary, and therefore the prerogative of absolute 
infallibility is to be ascribed to it, and a coercive 
power to constraiji to unity of faith, in like manner, 



Romanism and the Republic. 105 

absolute : as also the infallibility and coercive power 
of the Catholic Church itself, which is bound to 
adhere to the faith, are absolute." And in order 
to most fully prove the doctrine of infallibility, 
and delegate to the Pope the entire authority over 
the Church, Archbishop Manning declares, ''This 
infallibility and coercive power are to be ascribed to 
the Pope and are personal." 

Here, then, as against the doctrine of the Consti- 
tution of the United States, that Congress shall not 
even make a law prohibiting the free exercise of 
religion, the Romish Church makes the law, applies 
it in every country, — in the United States as well as 
in Italy or Spaiiij— and affirms in addition, the right to 
compel by force, over the bodies as well as the souls 
of men, obedience to the Roman Catholic worship. 
And every Roman Catholic is sworn to give his 
obedience to the Pope as against the Constitution of 
the United States, under penalty of excommunication 
and peril of temporal and eternal damnation. When 
I have told you, as I shall later on, in his own words, 
the horrible curses which fall from the mouth of the 
Pop^ in excommunicating those who break his com- 
mands — curses that may well from their very boldness 
and blasphemy cause trembling in a superstitious 
mind — you will see in his words the black jflag of that 
detachment of religionists calling themselves Chris- 
tians, who march to the overthrow of all religious 
freedom. 

To what extent may the Roman Catholic Church 
coerce? How does the Pope, how do the Cardinals 



106 Romanism and the Republic, 

and Archbishops of to-day, understand this term as 
they use it? We know what they meant by coercion 
in the past. We know, in their relation to the 
Huguenots, the Waldenses, the Albigenses, and the 
Lolhirds, what coercion, has meant with the Romish 
Church. We know what the Inquisition meant by 
coercion — death by torture, by fire, by sword and ax, 
by starvation, by burying alive ; and these have been 
the sanctioned methods of the Romish Church, never 
repudiated. Do they mean the same to-day? I 
answer. There is no restriction on the degree or kind of 
force that they will employ except their own cruelty. 
Segur, whom I quoted sometime since, and whose 
book you can purchase for a very small sum at the 
Roman Catholic bookstores, justifies the Inquisition, 
and in justifying it has the approval and blessing of 
the Pope. After stating that the Spanish Inquisition 
was established by Roman Catholic governments as 
an ecclesiastical institution, and thus agreeing that it 
had the sanction and approbation of the Church, he 
proceeds: ** That institution you may value as you 
choose : you are at liberty to condemn the abuses 
and cruelties of which it has been guilty through the 
violence of political passions and the character of the 
Spaniard ; yet one cannot but acknowledge in the 
terrible jpart taken by the clergy in its trials, the most 
leo;itimate and most natural exercise of ecclesiastical 
authority." This book was not designed for Protest- 
ant readers. It was avowedly and expressly 
addressed to those who were supposed to be ready 
and willing listeners to the words of authority ; to 



Romanism and the Republic, 107 

such as tamely and submissively put their manhood 
into the keeping of ecclesiastical superiors. 

Is there any reader so ignorant that he needs to 
be told what the Spanish Inquisition was, which is 
here declared to be the most legitimate and most 
natural exercise of ecclesiastical authority ? Of all 
the institutions ever known to the world, or ever 
invented by human ingenuity, it was the most cruel, 
oppressive and bloodthirsty. Its thousands of vic- 
tims, whose bones were crushed with its accursed 
instruments of torture, and whose groans made its 
priestly officials laugh with a joy akin to that of the 
fiends of hell, still cry out of their tombs against it. 
Yet in the nineteenth century, while humanity has not 
ceased to shudder at the thought of its possible sur- 
vival, the press of an American publishing house 
sends forth among the adherents of Roman Catholi- 
cism in the United States, with the sanction and 
approval of the Pope of Rome and of the Roman 
Catholic Bishop of Boston, the startling avowal, that 
this horrible instrument is ''' the most legitimate and 
most natural exercise of ecclesiastical authority,'''' 
And more than one of the Roman Catholic journals 
in the United States have taken extraordinary pains 
to commend this book in which this avowal is made 
to their readers, as does the Boston Pilot in its issue 
of February 20, 1870. (*' Papacy and the Civil 
Power," pp. 81-83.) 

The Spanish Inquisition ! Jean Antoine Llorente 
was secretary of the Inquisition of Spain, and when 
that institution was suppressed,in 1809, '10, '11, all 



108 Romanism and the Republic, 

the archives were placed at his disposal. These con- 
sisted of unpublished manuscripts and papers men- 
tioned in the inventories of deceased inquisitors. 
They were carefully examined, and furnished him 
much of the valuable information communicated in 
his published " History of the Inquisition." He says, 
that the " horrid conduct of this holy office weakened 
the power and diminished the population of Spain, by 
arresting the progress of arts, sciences, industry and 
commerce, and by compelling multitudes of families 
to abandon the kingdom ; by instigating the expul- 
sion of the Jews and the Moors, and by immolating 
on its flaming shambles more than three hundred 
thousand victims.''' Retraces its history with great 
minuteness of detail, showing its introduction into 
Arao^on durino^ the reis^n of Ferdinand and Isabella : 
the punishment of the Albigenses and the Jews by its 
cruelties ; its approval by Popes Sextus IV. , Inno- 
cent VIILy and others, as the means of augmenting 
their power ; and gives the harsh and unprecedented 
rules of procedure by which it was governed. One 
of those rules shows how necessary it was considered 
to the Papacy, and that it was employed by the 
reverend Inquisitors both as a religious and political 
institution. It required all witnesses to be asked, 
in general terms, "If they had ever seen or heard 
anything which was, or appeared, contrary to the 
Catholic faith, or the rights of the Inquisition." 
(Llorente's " History of the Inquisition.") 

La Maistre, in his "Letters on the Spanish Inquisi- 
tion," defending the institution, says, in 1815 : " The 



Romanis'ni and the Republic. 109 

Inquisition is, in its very nature, good, mild and pre- 
servative. It has the universal, indelible character of 
every ecclesiastical institution ; you see it in Rome, 
and you can see it wherever the true Church has 
power." Quite true ! This writer seems to be 
recommending the Inquisition to Americans. He 
admits that it existed in Spain by virtue of the bull 
of the Sovereign Pontiff. He says that the grand 
inquisitor is always either an archbishop or a bishop. 
He justifies the infliction of capital punishment upon 
those who attempt to subvert the established religion 
of a nation ; which means, that the Pope would require 
a resort to this remedy as the only means of obey- 
ing the divine law, wherever the Eoman Catholic 
religion is the religion of the State, as he is now 
striving to make it in the United States. He says ; 
*' A sense of duty obliges me to say, that a heresiarch, 
an obstinate heretic, and a propagator of heresy, 
should indisputably be ranked among the greatest 
criminals." That means, everyone who cannot be 
forced into silence and submission by Romish 
coercion. Again: "I by no means doubt that a 
tribunal of this description, adapted to the times, 
place and character of nations, would be highly use- 
ful in every country." He speaks of the *' demoniac 
spirit of Puritanism," and of Protestantism as " nick- 
named piety, zeal, faith, reformation and ortho- 
doxy," 

Now these letters of La Maistre were published by 
Patrick Donahoe, Catholic bookseller of Boston, in 
1843. How do you like them? What do you think 



110 Romanism and the Bepuhlic. 

of substituting the mild Inquisition for the Constitu- 
tion of the United States ? And you would have to 
substitute it, since the Inquisition and the Constitu- 
tion cannot live together in the same country. 

And this Inquisition, somewhat modified, was made 
use of in the city of Rome until 1870. There religi- 
ous toleration was unknown. No Protestants what- 
ever were allowed to hold any service within the 
walls of Rome, as long as the Pope had power. Pun- 
ishment, imprisonment and death were inflicted by 
the Pope, and under his express sanction and author- 
ity. I need not say, that one hour of life under 
the Constitution of the United States were worth an 
age of slavery under this revolting tyranny. And 
yet by every law of the Encyclical and Syllabus, by 
defence of past persecutions which it originated and 
carried forward, by the principles at present insisted 
on which it further advises shall speedily be made 
controlling, by the open and threatening declara- 
tions of its ecclesiastics, by its uncompromising hatred 
of all other forms of religion than its own, the Roman 
Catholic Church to-day would blot out the benignant 
Constitution of our Republic, and replace it by these 
accursed, blasphemous and vindictive statutes and 
theories, which would destroy every vestige of free- 
dom and Protestantism from the face of the earth. 
I shall prove this still more fully as I proceed, out 
of the mouths of their own lawgivers and rulers, 

4. And now I beg your attention to the specific 
declarations of the Constitution in ftivor of freedom 
of conscience, and the counter declarations of the 



Romanism and the Republic. Ill 

Roman Catholic law. The Constitution says, as 
already quoted: "Congress shall make no law 
respecting the establishment of religion or prohibit- 
ing the free exercise thereof, or abridging the free- 
dom of speech or of the press." It maybe possible 
that men shall speak so recklessly, whether by word 
or by printed page, that a limit must be set upon 
their expressions. To meet such cases, we already 
have laws in harmony with the Constitution, against 
slander, against vile and indecent language spoken 
or written, against those utterances in time of war 
that shall incite to treason or give aid and comfort to 
the enemy. But Congress has not, and never will 
violate this fundamental principle of our government, 
that the place and manner of worship, of speech, and 
of writing, shall be only limited by the laws of moral- 
ity and by the safety of the State. Shall we contrast 
this attitude of our Constitution with that foreign 
power that is trying to overthrow it ? You remem- 
ber that we quoted Father Hecker as saying : 
*' There is, ere long, to be a state religion in this 
country, and that state religion is to be Roman Cath- 
olic.'* While the Catholic World says: "Do you 
believe that this country will ever become Catholic?' 
is changing to the question ' How soon do you think 
it will come to pass?' Soon, very soon, we reply, 
if statistics be correct." Bishop O'Connor says : 
"Religious liberty is merely endured until the 
opposite can be carried into effect without peril 
to the Catholic world." " Liberty of conscience," 
says Pope Pius IX., endorsing the bull of Gregory 



112 Romanism and the Republic, 

XVI., is a most pestiferous error. From it spring 
revolutions, corruption, contempt of sacred things, 
holy institutions and laws, and, in one word, that 
pest of others most to be dreaded in a state, unbri- 
dled liberty of opinion." 

Religious liberty he denounces, because it makes 
the people disobedient to their princes ; and because, 
if it should be conceded to the Italians of the Papal 
States, they will soon naturally acquire political lib- 
erty, like the people of the United States. 

Concerning freedom of the press, he says : " We 
have been truly shocked at this most crafty device 
[Bible Societies] , by which the very foundations of 
religion are undermined. We have deliberated upon 
the measures proper to be adopted by our pontifical 
authority, in order to remedy and abolish this pesti- 
lence, as far as possible, this defilement of the faith, 
so imminently dangerous to souls. It is evident 
from experience that the Holy Scriptures, when cir- 
culated in the vulgar tongue, have, through the tem- 
erity of men, produced more harm than benefit. 
Warn the people entrusted to your care, that they 
fall not into the snares prepared for their everlasting 
ruin. Several of our predecessors have made laws 
to turn aside this scourge." (" Papacy and the Civil 
Power," pages 208-9.) 

But suppose the Pope had the power in this country 
that he claims ; and suppose, in violation of the 
Constitution, he forbade here liberty of worship, 
free speech, and a free press ; and suppose again, 
which is very likely, that you should disobey this 



Romanism and the Republic. 113 

imperial pontifical statute, what would be the result? 
It may seem like repetition, and yet we think it can- 
not be too often or too fully impressed upon your 
minds, that death would be the penalty of your 
disobedience. For Dens, their great authority, says ; 
" Infidels are not to be tolerated. Infidelity is not 
to be tried or proved, but extirpated." Baptized 
heretics, (for they allow the legitimacy of your bap- 
tism while they affirm your heresy,) are to be visited 
with excommunication, as in the case of the bull of 
Pius IX., a few years ago, excommunicating all 
Protestants. They are to be considered as infamous ; 
their temporal goods are to be confiscated ; they 
are to be subjected to corporal punishment, to exile 
and impisonment. In case they remain obstinate, 
they are to be dealt with as John Huss and Jerome 
were, under a decree of the Council of Constance ; 
that is, they shall sufi'er death. 

Hear the emphatic and plain language of this 
standard Romish authority : 

*'Are heretics rightly punished with death ? Saint 
Thomas answers * Yes ; because forgers of money, or 
other disturbers of the state, are justly punished 
with death : therefore also heretics, who are forgers 
of the faith, and, experience being witness, grievously 
disturb the state.'" ( Dens, Volume 2, jSTumber 56, 
Page 89.) 

But how will these terrific penalties be executed 
when the Pope has the power? The Constitution 
gives every man the right of speedy trial by jury in 
open court, before an impartial jury : he is to be 



114 Romanism and the Republic. 

informed of the nature of the accusation, to be con- 
fronted with witnesses, to have compulsory process 
for obtaining witnesses in his favor, to have the assist- 
ance of a counsel for his defense : excessive fines 
shall not be imposed, nor cruel and unusual punish- 
ments inflicted. ( Amendments to the Constitution, 
Articles VI. and VIII.) This is the mercy of a free 
government, which assumes the innocence of men 
until they are proven guilty by fair trial. 

But what is the order of the Inquisition, which is 
the judicial enginery of the Papacy ? All along they 
have denied that ecclesiastics shall be tried by civil 
court. They curse and denounce those who would 
subject the priests to the civil power. This curse 
and declaration was contrary to the declaration of 
Independence, which is almost as much a part of the 
foundation of our government as is the Constitution 
itself: which oreat instrument declares that all men 
are created free and equal, a doctrine against which 
the Pope fulminates at almost every turn. Ecclesias- 
tics then shall not be held responsible to civil courts 
and constitutional laws. And by ecclesiastical courts, 
by secret tribunal, by inquisitor, on private informa- 
tion, without witnesses in one's favor, without an im- 
partial jury, counsel being denied, the traps of fierce 
ecclesiastical, I had almost said devilish, law being 
set : by these means are heretics to be tried, and by 
these means condemned. This is the historic method 
of Romanism ; its avowed policy, declared by its 
Popes, and by its authoritative writers, under Papal 
sanctions : this is actually the method pursued in the 



Homanism and the Republic, 115 

Papal States until 1870, when the Pope lost his 
temporal power ; and this is the condition to which 
they avow their purpose to subjugate us. 

Do you question whether these quiet and diplo- 
matic prelates would really execute such Papal 
mandates? whether kindly neighbors would become, 
at the Pope's command, persecutors, informers and 
destroyers? Hard as it is to conceive, this is 
exactly what has happened. So it was at the massacre 
of St. Bartholomew in France, where at least 70,000 
Protestants were foully murdered by Papists ; for 
which the Pope, Gregory XIII., commanded Te 
Deums to be sung in the churches of Rome, and in 
honor of which he ordered a medal struck with his 
own face on one side, and a scene of slaughter on the 
obverse. Though a tiger may create admiration by 
the symmetry of his form, and the smoothness and 
beauty of his skin, I prefer not to be so fascinated 
but that I remember that he has a tiger's nature 
within. I can admire the diplomatic skill, the intense 
devotion, and persistent patience of Romish Jesuits, 
but I dare not trust their heart ; and therefore I arm 
myself and you with the truth which shall defend us 
from their assaults. 

In your hearing, I have cited the laws and princi- 
ples which claim absolute sway over Roman Catho- 
lics, and have cited also the Constitution of the United 
States, to which they are diametrically opposed. 
And now, that you may know what spirit is in those 
laws, whether there is a fierce and cruel heart behind 
them all, I shall quote to you the excommunication 



116 Romanism and the Republic, 

bestowed on Victor Emanuel, King of United Italy, 
b}^ the Pope of Kome. This shocking curse was 
dealt out to him, not because he was immoral, or 
ambitious, or a fierce soldier. All these may have 
been his characteristics, but they call forth no Papal 
hate. Only when he appears amid the acclamations 
of emancipated Italians, the King of United Italy, 
does the hatred of the Pontiff burst forth as^ainst him. 
In the person of Victor Emanuel then, the church 
thus anathematizes freedom in Italy. 

And remember, while I read this furious curse, 
that it is spoken by one whom Roman Catholics call 
the *' Vicar of Christ," who assumes by their con- 
sent, among other titles, that of " Prince of God," 
"The Oracle of Eeligion," *' Our Lord God the 
Pope," "The Most Holy Father," "Priest of the 
World," "The Divine Majesty," with other names 
of blasphemy. Without prejudice, make up your 
minds what spirit dwells in a man, or a church, that 
can employ the following curse : 

" By authority of the Almighty God, the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost ; and of the Holy Canons, and 
of the undefiled Virgin Mary, mother and nurse of our 
Saviour; and of the celestial virtues, angels, arch- 
angels, thrones, dominions, powers, cherubims, and 
seraphims ; and of all the holy patriarchs and pro- 
phets ; and of the apostles and evangelists ; and of 
the holy innocents, who, in the sight of the Holy 
Lamb, are found worthy to sing the new song ; and 
of the holy martyrs and holy confessors, and of the 
holy virgins, and of the saints, together with all the 



liomanism and the Me^puhlic. 117 

holy and elect of God : we excommunicate and ana- 
thematize him, and from the threshold of the holy 
church of God Almighty we sequester him, that he 
may be tormented in eternal excruciating sufferings, 
together with Dathan and Abiram, and those who 
say to the Lord God, ' Depart from us ; we desire 
none of thy ways.' And as fire is quenched by 
water, so let the light of him be put out forever 
more. May the Son who suffered for us, curse him. 
May the Father who created man, curse him. May 
the Holy Ghost which was given to us in our baptism, 
curse him. May the Holy Cross which Christ, for 
our salvation, triumphing over his enemies, ascended, 
curse him. May the Holy and eternal Virgin Mary, 
mother of God, curse him. May St. Michael the 
advocate of holy souls, curse him. May all the 
angels and archangels, principalities and powers, and 
all the heavenly armies, curse him. May St. John 
the precursor, and St. Peter, and St Paul, and St. 
John the Baptist, and St. Andrew, and all other 
Christ's apostles, together curse him, and may the 
rest of his disciples and four Evangelists, who by 
their preaching converted the universal world, — and 
may the holy and wonderful company of martyrs and 
confessors, who by their holy work are found plead- 
ing to God Almighty, — curse him. May the Choir 
of the Holy Virgins, who for the honor of Christ 
have despised the things of this world, damn him. May 
all the saints who from the beofinninof of the world, 
and everlasting ages are found to be beloved of God, 
damn him. May the heavens and the earth, and all 
things remaining therein, damn him. 



118 Romanism and the Republic, 

* ' May he be damned wherever he may be ; whether 
in the house or in the field, whether in the highway 
or in the byway, whether in the wood or water, or 
whether in the church. May he be cursed in living 
and dying, in eating and drinking, in fasting and 
thirsthig, in slumbering and sleeping, in watching or 
walking, in standing or sitting, in lying down or 
walking mingendo cancando, and in all blood-letting. 
May he be cursed in all the faculties of his body. 
May he be cursed inwardly and outwardly. May 
he be cursed in his hair. May he be cursed in his 
brain. May he be cursed in the crown of his head 
and in his temples. In his forehead and in his ears. 
In his eyebrows and in his cheeks. In his jaw-bones 
and his nostrils. In his foreteeth and in his grinders. 
In his lips and in his throat. In his shoulders and 
in his wrists. In his arms, his hands, and in his 
fingers. May he be damned in his mouth, in his 
breast, in his heart, and in all the viscera of his body. 
May he be damned in his veins and in his groin ; in 
his thighs ; in his hips and in his knees ; in his legs, 
feet, and toe-nails. 

** May he be cursed in all the joints and articulations 
of his body. From the top of his head to the sole of 
his foot may there be no soundness in him. May the 
Son of the living God, with all the glory of his 
Majesty, curse him; and may heaven, with all the 
powers that move therein, rise up against him — 
curse him and damn him ! Amen. So let it be ! 
Amen." 

Hell is not more remote from heaven than this 
from the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ I 



Romanism and the Mejpublic, 119 

And I call upon all men who are witnesses to the 
spirit and words of Papal tyranny, on Protestants 
and Roman Catholics who love God and manhood, 
liberty and country, to register a solemn vow with 
God, like that in which you yielded your hearts to 
his service, that never, by your indifference, consent 
or connivance, shall the Papal power make a sepul- 
chre beneath its curses for the Constitution and the 
Laws which are the glory and protection of free 
America. 

Note. The form of the Excommunication of Victor Em- 
manuel quoted above is vouched for \)j A. P. Grover, Esq., in 
his book entitled "Romanism the Danger Ahead," from which 
it is cited by the author. 



Sermon V. 



ROMANISM ANTAGONISTIC TO THE CONSTITUTION 
AND THE LAWS. 



My sermon is really a continuation of that of last 
Sunday evening, and my text is the same as then. In 
the book of Deuteronomy, the fourth chapter, begin- 
ning with the fifth verse : ' ' Behold I have taught 
you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God 
commanded me, that ye shall do so in the land 
whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do 
them ; for this is your wisdom and your understand- 
ing in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all 
these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a 
wise and understanding people. For what nation 
is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, 
as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon 
him for? And what nation is there so great, who 
hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this 
law, which I set before you this day?" 

You will remember, if you were here, that I 
showed how this might apply to the Constitution of 
this great country, and I also showed, in the intro- 
duction of last Sunday evening, the relation of the 
Constitution to the welfare and liberty of the State. 



Romanism and the Hejniblic. 121 

I then proceeded to point out the utter antagonism 
of Romanism to the Constitution and laws of the 
United States, and in the following particulars : First, 
That while the Constitution recognizes the people, 
under God, as the source of all authority ; the Roman 
Catholic Church recognizes the Pope, under God, as 
the source of all authority. Second, — I brought to 
your attention the fact that, while the Constitution 
is the supreme law of the land, the Roman Catholic 
Church insists that the will of the Pope is the 
supreme law of all lands. I then took up the First 
Amendment of the Constitution, showing that it is 
according to the Constitution of the United States 
that no religion shall be established by law ; and 
I then showed that the Roman Catholic Church is 
always clamoring to have Romanism established by 
law. I further proved that it was contrary to the 
Constitution of the United States to forbid any relig- 
ion in this country ; and I then showed that it is 
according to the principles of the Roman Catluolic 
Church to forbid every religion excepting its own. 

Then I read from the Constitution of the United 
States, that liberty of conscience should never be 
abridged in our nation, and quoted from the Pope of 
Rome and the hierarchs to show that liberty of con- 
science was considered by them a pest and a delirium. 
I also quoted the Constitution as against abridging 
freedom of speech and of the press. Afterwards I 
quoted Roman Catholic authorities as considering 
liberty of speech and of the press a pestilence, as 
they declared in encyclicals and acts of councils. I 



122 Romanism and the Rejpublic. 

then proceeded to show that it was contrary to the 
Constitution of the United States to inflict severe 
penalties without fair trial by jury ; and afterwards, 
that Roman Catholicism declares her ecclesiastical 
laws to be superior to all civil law, and claims the 
right to inflict all sorts of penalties ; and having 
proved all these things, I closed by reading the dia- 
bolical excommunication which was visited upon 
Victor Emanuel, by Pope Pius IX., to show the 
fierceness of the Papal spirit. 

When we closed the last discourse, we had shown 
that Romanism, in its letter and spirit alike, was hos- 
tile to the Constitution of the United States and the 
laws of the country. Now we will resume where 
then we paused, the line of irrefutable proof that this 
is the fact. 

In further demonstration of this, I call your atten- 
tion to a remark of the most distin2:uished statesman 
of Spain, Castelar, who, in 1869, said to the Spanish 
Cortes : ' ' There is not a single progressive principle 
which has not been cursed by the Catholic Church. 
This is true of England and Germany, as well as of 
Catholic countries. The Church cursed the French 
Revolution, the Belgium Constitution and the Ital- 
ian Independence. Nevertheless all these princi- 
ples have unrolled themselves in spite of it. Not a 
Constitution has been born, not a single progress 
made, not a solitary reform efiected which has not 
been under the terrible anathemas of the Church." 

As though to add emphasis to the very words that 
I have spoken, the present Pope has just issued 



Romanism and the Mepuhlic. 123 

another encyclical against liberty, of which you will 
find an abstract in the New York Independent for 
August 2, 1888, in which all the assaults of which 
we have taken note heretofore are renewed. Liberty 
of conscience, freedom of worship and the suprem- 
acy of the Constitution are all disallowed, and the 
Pope protests that the State ought to suppress any 
other than the Roman Catholic religion. This doc- 
ument is later than the infamous rescript concernino- 
Irish affairs, which has so effectually shut the mouths 
of all those enthusiastic patriots who hitherto have 
been doing their utmost for what they call the liber- 
ation of Ireland. 

Perhaps the most capable theologian and essayist 
of the Roman Catholic Church in America was 
Orestes A. Brownson, a pervert from Protestant- 
ism. That he fully shared the sentiments of the 
Pope you may learn from his writings ; among which 
occurs the following significant assertion : " All the 
rights the sects have, or can have, are derived from 
the State, and rest on expediency. As they have, 
in their character of sects, hostile to the true relicr- 
ion, no rights under the law of nature or the law of 
God, they are neither wronged nor deprived of lib- 
erty if the State refuses to grant any rights at all." 
The New York Tablet says: " They have, as Pro- 
testants, no authority in religion, and count for noth- 
ing in the Church of God. They have from God no 
right forpropagandism, and religious liberty is in no 
sense violated when the national authority, whether 
Catholic or pagan, closes their mouths and their 
places of holding forth." 



124 Romanism and the Republic, 

But now I call you to notice, that Komanism in 
America has violated the Constitution of the United 
States by overt acts. 

1. Note the following violation of the Constitu- 
tion by Komanism, in the matter of appropriating 
public monies. Tlie Constitution and the laws of the 
United States, and of the several States, do not war- 
rant, but rather forbid, the appropriation of money by 
the States to sects, for their own specific purposes. 
This is a natural and necessary interpretation of the 
First Amendment of the Constitution, and the reason 
for it is obvious to all. But by threats and political 
influences, the Koman Catholic Church has violated 
this law in many cases. 

Among the most conspicuous, are those in New 
York State and New York City. The chief author- 
ity on this matter is the late Dexter A. Hawkins of 
New York, who, in the New York Ohristian Advo- 
cate of January, 1880, tells us in detail how the 
Roman Catholics possessed themselves of several 
blocks in the best part of New York City, where 
now the Cathedral stands. Five and a-half whole 
blocks were stolen from the city, worth at least 
three millions and a-half of dollars, and no consider- 
ation was given in return. Not only this, but speci- 
fically Roman Catholic institutions, schools, churches, 
and so-called benevolent institutions, have been sup- 
ported largely by public funds : 127 of these Rom- 
ish institutions, in eleven years prior to 1879, had 
received six million dollars. The Tweed ring in 
1869, exchanged, for the political influence of Roman- 



Romanism and the Republic, 125 

ists, $800,000 in appropriations that year. So far 
from these sectarian institutions being benevolent, 
it is a notorious fact that some of them have been 
made prisons for those who have thrown off the yolce 
of Rome and espoused the Christian faith. Spirited 
away from their homes and placed in durance vile, 
some of them have never been heard from as^ain since 
they entered tlie walls of these institutions, the sole 
purpose of w4iich is to make, out of the young and 
rising generation, converts to Rome. 

But not only in the States has this flagrant violation 
of the Constitution occurred. By stealth, the Roman 
Catholics have secured from the national government, 
appropriations to specifically Romish schools. You 
may perhaps know that the Government supports, in 
part, schools for the Indians, in which the various 
denominations also bear a part. The Roman Cath- 
olics have a Bureau of observation and effort at 
Washington, from which they bring to bear influ- 
ences upon Congress to secure the lion's share of 
these appropriations. Last year, of the entire 
appropriations for Indian education, the Roman 
Catholics, who number only one-sixth to one-tenth 
of our population, received fifty-five and a-half per 
cent., while all the Protestant Churches, in their 
work, though they number five-sixths to nine-tenths 
of the population, received only forty-four and a- 
half per cent. This indicates the alarming extent to 
which Rome influences even national legislatures in 
the line of building up her own power. 

In addition to these appropriations, thus forced 



126 Romanism and the Republic. 

from the public treasury, Kome, with her usual 
greed of grain, has secured and holds vast proper- 
ties in our cities and country on which she pays no 
taxes. 

Among the principles of the Romish Church is 
this, that it has the legitimate right to secure, hold 
and use property without limit. In our country, 
churches and religious corporations, as well as all 
other corporations, can hold property only when 
authorized so to do by statute, and for the uses speci- 
fied by statute, and then only to the amount fixed by 
statute. The Romish Church opposes all this, as by 
it they are prevented from swallowing up the prop- 
erty of the country. 

In England, before the statute of mortmain, the 
Church had got possession of one-third of the property 
of the kingdom, and so astute were the priests in 
evadinof the laws of the realm, that it took four hun- 
dred years to so perfect them as to protect the public 
against the rapacity of this Church. Blackstone 
says, that but for these statutes, ecclesiastical corpor- 
ations would soon have engulfed the whole real 
estate of England. After all these precautions, the 
civil power had finally to resort to confiscation, to 
restore enough of the land to the people to ensure 
the prosperity of the realm. 

In Italy, Spain and Mexico, the civil government, 
for like reasons, though it was Roman Catholic, has 
been compelled to resort to confiscation. As a 
sample of Romish greed, in the year 1848, through 
unmitigated chicanery, the Romish ecclesiastics 



Romanism and the Republic. 127 

obtained from a feeble old man in Brooklyn, New 
York, a vast landed property. They secured an act 
of incorporation for a nominal society, The Brooklyn 
Benevolent Society, which simply pours its revenues 
into the pockets of the priests and prelates, and in 
the one year 1880, this property should have paid into 
the treasury of the city not less than one hundred 
thousand dollars annual taxes. They have held it 
without a penny of tax, and do to this day. 

This is but a sample. The rapacity of the Roman 
Catholic Church for money is simply without bound. 
The Pope lives in the utmost splendor and luxury. 
His palace is the grandest of any sovereign in Europe. 
His state carriages, covered with gold, are inferior 
to those of no other monarch. Cardinals, arch- 
bishops and bishops, alike live in luxury, and many 
in gross dissipation ; while the Roman Catholic 
people throughout the world are notoriously poor. 
The Romish Church is a vast system of plunder. 
Almost everything obtained in the way of religious 
consolation by her poor and superstitious people 
must be paid for with money. The confessional is 
little less than a means of extorting gold from the 
people. Purgatory and masses for the dead, is 
only another measure for the same purpose. 

All Roman Catholic countries are miserably poor 
as compared with Protestant countries, as Romanists 
themselves declare. Spain, once the richest of 
em[)ires, has been almost bankrupt for many years, 
and while Protestant countries have grown enor- 
mously in wealth, even under unfavorable circum- 



128 Romanism and the Republic. 

stances, as steadily Roman Catholic nations have 
grown poorer. For this the church is responsible. 
The real trouble in Ireland is indicated by the 
recent interference of the Pope. The trouble is 
Popery. In vain the Papal power leads the Irish 
people to think that England is the cause of all their 
woes. But if Ireland was totally detached from the 
British Empire, that part of it that is under the 
domination of priests would be as Spain and Italy, 
it would become poorer and poorer. In Canada, in 
the United States, in Mexico and the South American 
Republics, as well as in European States, Rome must 
answer for the fact that her people, with all their nat- 
ural gifts and advantages, which do not seem to be 
in any wise inferior to the providential opportunities 
of Protestants, are crushed to death by the extortions, 
the avarice, the rapacity of priestly rulers. And 
both by their laws and their practices, it is 
evident that Rome purposes nothing less in this 
country than to possess itself of vast wealth, at the 
expense of the people, for the destruction of the 
nation. 

2. But I pass from this violation of the Consti- 
tution and the rights of man, to some further proofs 
that the Romanists propose to make the Pope 
supreme in America. 

First of all, this is their creed, their religion; 
this is the doctrine of their councils, the doctrine of 
their Encyclicals, the spirit of all their work. Their 
ablest theologians, whom we have cited, so expound 
their laws. And they are not more attached to any 



Romanism and the Republic, 129 

principles of their religion than to this purpose to 
make the Pope supreme and absolute ruler. Hear 
the arrogant words in which their oracle, Brownson, 
asserts this purpose : ** The people need governing, 
and must be governed. They must have a master. 
The religion which is to ans\ver our purpose must 
be above the people, and able to command them. 
The first lesson of the child is to obey ; the first and 
last lesson to the people, individually and collectively, 
is obey. There is no obedience where there is no 
authority to enjoin it. The Roman Catholic religion, 
then, is necessary to sustain popular lil)erty, because 
poi)ular liberty can be sustained only by a religion 
free from popular control, above tlie people, speak- 
ins: from above and able to command them, and such 
a reliiiion is the Roman Catholic. In this sense we 
wish this country to come under the power of Rome, 
As the visible head of the Church, the spiritual 
authority which Almighty God has instituted to 
teach and govern the nation, we assert his supremacy, 
and tell our countrymen that we would have them 
submit to him. They may flare up ms much as they 
please, and write as many alarming and abusive edit- 
orials as they choose, or can find time and space to 
do. They will not move us, or relieve themselves 
from the obligation Almighty God has placed them 
under, of oI)eying the authority of the Catholic 
Church, Pope and all." Could anything be more 
definite than this, or more insolent? Nothing; 
unless it is the laws and practices of the Papal 
power. 



130 Hopianism and the Hepuhlic. 

To secure this end, the present Pope, Leo XIII., 
expressly commands American Roman Catliolics to 
political activity. Here are his words of NovemI>er 
1, 1885, an extract from his Encyclical: »* Every 
Catholic should rigidly adhere to the teachings of 
the Eoman Pontiffs, especially in the matter of 
modern liberty, which already, under the semblance 
of honesty of purpose, leads to harm and destruction. 
We exhort all Catholics who would devote careful 
attention to public matters, to take an active 
part in all municipal affairs and elections, and 
to favor the principles of the Church in all pub- 
lic services, meetings and gatherings. All Cath- 
olics must make themselves felt as active elements in 
daily political life in the countries where they live. 
They must penetrate, wherever possible, in the admin- 
istration of civil affairs : must constantly exert the 
utmost vigilance and energy to prevent the usages of 
liberty from going beyond the limits fixed by God's 
law. All Catholics should do all in their power to 
cause the Constitutions of States and leoislation to be 
modeled in the principles of the true Church. All 
Catholic writers and journalists should never lose for 
an instant from view the above prescriptions." By this 
time, you know what the purpose of such advice and^ 
counsel is, — the suppression of liberty, the downfall 
of the Constitution, the ruin of the State. Do Rom- 
anists obey this Papal command? Exactly, as they 
obey all other Papal commands. You would hardly 
suppose that Roman Catholics in this or other 
American cities needed to be exhorted to greater 
political activity. 



Romanism and the Hepuhlit. 131 

And yet under the Papal command, they are evi- 
dently aiming at supreme power over the State. 
For, not only have they heard the word of the Pope, 
and avowed as part of their creed their purpose to 
make him supreme, but American Romanists, in great 
public meetings, have promised to assist in restoring 
and maintaining the Pope's temporal power. 

After Victor Emanuel occupied Rome, numerous 
great public indignation meetings were held by the 
Roman Catholics throughout the United States, in 
many of which, together with their protests against 
Italian interference with the Pope's temporal govern- 
ment, they pledged themselves to restore the Pontiff 
to his rio-htful throne ; and in denouncino^ the course 
of Italy, its Constitution and its purposes, they 
denounce almost every principle of the American 
Constitution. This was particularly the case in a 
great Roman Catholic meeting in Philadelphia, on the 
25th of March, 1873, in which, among the terrible 
persecutions which they recounted as having been visi- 
ted upon their fellow Catholics in Germany , they stated 
the following : First, the expulsion of the Jesuits ; 
second, the encroachment upon the Constitutional 
rights of the German Catholic hierarchy, by retaining 
in their positions •and dignities the Old Catholics ; 
third, the encroachments upon the rights of conscience, 
by keeping others than Romanists in charge of the pub- 
lic schools ; fourth, the unchristianizing of the schools. 
These they call arbitrary and tyrannical measures, and 
yet these are the common law of the United States, 
to which they are equally antagonistic. In pursu- 



132 HomanisTii and the Republic, 

aiice of this determination, Roman Catholic periodi- 
cals, from time to time, have threatened "political 
damnation," to use their own phraseology, to legis- 
lators who opposed their behests. This unseemly 
menace is particularly conspicuous in the Roman 
Catholic Heview for November, 1885, a periodical 
commended by the Bishop of Brooklyn, Cardinal 
McClosky, Bishop of New York, Cardinal Cullen, 
Archbishop of Dublin, and many other prelates. 
Commentino: on the refusal of the Lofi^islature of New 
York to grant the Roman church certain favors, they 
boast that those legislators had been retired from 
political life, and affirm that they have a list of others 
who shall follow them, unless they yield to do the bid- 
ding of Rome. In Canada, the interference of Rom- 
ish prelates in elections, their boast that the Jesuits 
controlled the political force of the province, have 
already become a matter of history, as they have 
of alarm. If, in the face of these threats of political 
overthrow, and the establishment, on the ruins of our 
liberties, of the Papal power, you shall reply that 
these Roman Catholics are American citizens, and 
have sworn to support the Constitution and the laws, 
and that you do not think that they will violate their 
oath, I must call upon you to renfember, first of all, 
as the most binding of their oaths, they are sworn 
to obey the Pope, and that as long as they are 
Romanists. 

3. The oaths of Roman Catholics are no guaran- 
tee of their loyalty to the Constitution. They are 
specifically sworn to obey the Pope in preference to 



Itomanism and the Republic. 133 

any other ruler, his law above every other law. 
The bishop's oath, which I have already given you in 
detail, unhesitatingly affirms this. The Jesuit's oath 
is even stronger in its utter renunciation of all other 
rule or government than the Papal ; while the priests 
and laymen are bound to the same control. As a 
matter of fact, they profess first a supreme allegiance 
to the Pope. 

Shortly after the decree of infallibility was 
announced, and this profession of primary fidelity to 
the Pope was made in New York, the J^ew York 
Herald, which has always been controlled by a mod- 
erate Roman Catholic said : " There are thousands of 
Roman Catholics in this land who do not place 
Rome above the United States, and whose patriotism 
cannot be subverted by fealty to religious dogmas 
and creeds." To this patriotic utterance, which we 
would fain believe to be true, the New York Tablet, 
Roman Catholic, of November 1^72, replied: "The 
Herald is behind the times, and appears not yet to 
have learned that the thousands of Catholics it 
speaks of are simply no Catholics at all, if it does not 
misrepresent them. Gallicanism, which denies the 
temporal power of the Pope, is a heresy ; and he who 
denies the Papal supremacy in the government of the 
universal church, is as far from being Catholic as he 
who denies the Incarnaticm, or the Real Presence. 
The church is more than country, and fealty to the 
creed God teaches and enjoins througli her, is more 
than patriotism. We n^ust ol)ey God rather than 
man." And further it says ; *' Our church is God's 



134 Romanism and the Ttepuhlic. 

church, and not accountable either to State or to 
country." Thus you see how the organ of the hierar- 
chy denounces the doctrine of moderate Komanism, 
which had only insisted on loyalty to the country. 

But you reply, that all Roman Catholics in office, 
as those who have become naturalized in this coun- 
try, have taken an oath of fealty to the Constitution 
and the Republic, — will they not be debarred there- 
fore from treason, even at the Pope's command, by 
their oath? We answer; The Roman Catholic theory 
of oaths permits those who have taken them, without 
blame, to violate any oath or obligation when the 
Pope commands. One of the greatest Popes, Inno- 
cent III., asserted for himself such plentitude of 
power as gave him right to dispense with any law. 
The Fourth General Lateran Council, with the approval 
of Alexander III., decreed, that an oath in opposi- 
tion to the welfare of the Church and the enactments 
of the holy fathers is not to be called an oath, but 
rather perjury. Peter Dens, the great commentator 
on the laws and morality and theology of the Church, 
lays it down as the law of the Church, that the right 
of the Pope, as the ultimate superior and sovereign, is 
reserved in every oath ; which, of course, includes 
the oath of allegiance. He also instructs the faithful, 
that the Pope has the power of withdrawing or pro- 
hibiting what is included in an oath ; and that when 
he does so, it is no longer included. I can give you 
the most abundant proof, from the Roman Catholic 
theologians, that by the law o^ mental reservation, as 
they call it, any Roman Catholic is justified in taking 



Romanism and the Hepuhlic, 135 

a false oath ; in swearing that he is ignorant of what 
he knows to be true ; in swearing that he knows to be 
true that of which he is ignorant, or any other use 
of lano'uao^e which sets truth at defiance. What, 
then, is the oath of a Roman Catholic worth, provided 
his personal honor and sense of right is not greater 
than that of the law of his church? I do not say 
that Roman Catholics are not numerous whose word 
and whose oath are honestly made, and will be hon- 
estly kept ; but I do say, that this is no part of their 
religion, and that the Pope may, under penalty of 
excommunication, command them to violate any 
oath. 

But we go even further than this, and are unfortu- 
nately able from history to show that Roman 
Catholics, being wholly at the mercy of the Pope, 
cannot be relied on in their oaths, even when we 
suppose that they speak without reservation, and 
when, so far as we can judge, their oath is honestly 
taken. You may be familiar with what is known as 
Catholic Emancipation in Great Britain. The Roman 
Catholics, on account of the universal doubt enter- 
tained of their loyalty, had long been subject to 
civil disabilities, under which they groaned, and 
against which they protested. These disabilities 
were not imposed capriciously by the Crown or Par- 
liament of Great Britain, but were the result of Ions: 
contention with Papal usurpation, and of an honest 
doubt as to the loyalty of Roman Catholics. While 
the agitation was going on, and the measures for 
the relief of British Roman Catholics were pending, 



136 Romanism and the Hepuhlic, 

English and Irish priests and laymen combined to 
affirm, under oath, that "It is not an article of the 
Catholic faith, neither are they required to believe 
or profess that the Pope is infallible. Second : That 
their Church has no power that can directly or 
indrectly injure Protestants, as all she can do is to 
refuse them her sacraments, which they do not want. 
And third : That no ecclesiastical power whatever can 
directly or indirectly affect, or interfere with, the 
independence, the sovereignty, laws and Constitution 
or government of the realm." 

And on the 26th of February, 1810, the English 
Catholic bishops declare as follows : " The said oath, 
and the declarations, objurations and protestations 
therein contained, are notoriously, to the Roman Cath- 
olic Church at large, become a part of the Roman 
Catholic religion, as taught us by the Bishops, and 
received and maintained by the Roman Catholic 
Churches in Ireland ; and as such, are approved and 
sanctioned by the other Roman Catholic Churches. 
The protestation was signed by two hundred and forty- 
one priests, including all the vicars apostolic, by all 
the clergy and laity of England of any note ; and in 
1789, in a general meeting of the Engli.^h Catholics 
in London, was subscribed to by every person 
present, and the document was deposited in the 
British Museum as a proof of their loyalty and 
honesty. 

And yet what do we see ? We see a Council at 
the Vatican, in 1870, imposing a new law upon these 
Roman Catholics and their descendants, in utter and 



Homanism and the Republic, 137 

absolute contradiction of the vow that they them- 
selves sustained and declared, concerning which Mr. 
Ghidstone says, while he does not deny the honor of 
the Roman Catholics that made this protest, " Either 
the Papal See and Court, had at that time, abandoned 
the dream of the enforcement of the infallibility of 
the Church; or else, by wdlful silence, they were 
guilty of practicing upon the British Crown one of 
the blackest frauds recorded in history." (" Vatican- 
ism," p. 134.) 

Here, then, is a historic instance, which, if 
it proves anything proves this : that if all the lead- 
ing Roman Catholics in this country should meet 
together and solemnly swear that there was nothing 
in the laws of their Church inconsistent with their 
highest patriotism and devotion to the country, — if 
they should swear that, according to their under- 
standing, the Pope could not interfere with their civil 
allegiance, — he might, within twenty-four hours of 
that time, on his sole and only respon.sibility, reverse 
their oaths, and command them, under pain of eternal 
damnation, to take up arms against the Constitution 
and laws of the United States ; and their honesty of 
purpose in the avowal which they had made could 
not for one moment stand ao'ainst the order and the 
w^ill of the infallible Pope. No wonder that an 
eminent Catholic layman, in a recent periodical, with 
most pathetic and sorrowful allusions, protests 
against the fact that the conscience, the judgment, 
the loyalty of Roman Catholics are subject solely 
and only to the Pope of Rome, Thus by the evident 



138 Romanism and the Hepitblic. 

laws and purposes of the Romish Church, and by 
their history also, they are thoroughly disloyal to 
the Constitution of the United States, and pledged 
to disobedience to the laws. 

I do not hesitate to say that, in all candor and 
reason, every Roman Catholic who confesses this alle- 
giance to the Papac}', ought to be disfranchised in the 
United States, and forbidden the right to participate, 
as a citizen, in either holding an office or casting a 
ballot. 

For that is exactly the attitude which we take to 
Mormons, who affirm primary allegiance to their 
hierarchy. Here is the case of a man asking to be 
naturalized before the court, who vows that he is not 
a polygamist, but does believe in polygamy ; that he 
is a Mormon, and if a polygamist were brought 
before the court, he, the applicant for naturalization, 
would not as a juror vote to condemn his fellow- 
Mormon for polygamy. Whereupon the United 
States Court, in an elaborate, learned, and rational 
opinion, refused to naturalize him, on this ground, 
that no man w4io is pledged to disobedience to the 
laws of the United States, or who is pledged to 
uphold and maintain others in disobedience, can, or 
bv riofht should, become a citizen of the United 
States. The application of the principle would dis- 
franchise every Roman Catholic in America, and 
ought to. Slowly as we are awakening to our 
dangers, even politicians, much more statesmen, are 
becoming filled with alarm ; while all wise publicists 
are recognizing with dread, as the dangerous element 



Homanism and the Republic, 139 

in American politics, the ecclesiastical power of 
Rome. There is no city but what is burdened 
with it; there is no state but what is imperilled by 
it : and the whole land stands in the shadow of an 
impending peril, a thunderbolt in the hand of this 
modern Jove of the Vatican, that may yet shatter the 
nation from center to circumference. 

But I must close this line of argument and proof, 
in order to show finally what are the results of 
Roman Catholic supremacy. They have been privi- 
leged to try the experiment of absolute government, 
and what has been the consequence ? I will not refer 
to the misgovernment of American cities, nor point 
to the degradation of South American Republics ; I 
will not take time to speak to you of prostrate 
Mexico, of ruined Spain and Portugal, and of down- 
trodden Italy, but will try to answer the question. 

4. What kind of government comes from the 
Papal plan, where they have absolute sway ? I answer, 
a government as totally unlike ours as its principles 
are opposed to those of our Constitution. 

In the Roman States, until Papal supremacy was 
abolished, the people suffered under one of the Avorst 
governments in the civilized world. The people 
were considered as so many tenants, who occupied 
and enjo3^ed the Papal estate on the condition fixed 
by the infallible head of the church, for her welfare 
and not their own. They were possessed of no civil 
rights whatever, in the sense in which the world holds 
them ; but only such privileges as their sovereign, the 
Pope, thought proper to confer upon them ; and 



140 Romanism and the Republic, 

these could be changed, modified, or entirely with- 
drawn at his personal discretion, or whenever the 
interests of the Church should require it. If the 
government was a trust held alone for the benefit of 
the Church, as Papists allowed, then the people had 
no right to demand of it anything on their own 
account. The government was conducted wholly 
without reference to them, and they were required to 
submit, whatever it did. Popular liberty was there- 
fore unknown and impossible. The Papacy alone 
was free to do as it pleased, and this was called the 
freedom of the Church. The people, having thus no 
voice in public afi^airs, were in a condition of vassal- 
aire. The o^overnment was a revival, with slia'ht 
exceptions, of the old system of feudalism, without 
its redeeming features. There was no written con- 
stitution, not even a collection of precedents, from 
which the citizen could learn the extent of the privi- 
leofes conceded to him. So, whatever of fundamental 
law there was, could be found only in the decrees, 
canons, and constitutions of councils, and the bulls 
and briefs of Popes, published in a language which 
no one but the educated nobility could understand. 
No freedom of worship was allowed. No Bibles in 
the hands of the common people. 

The Consul of the United States at Rome for four 
years, until 1865, W. J. Stillman, reports a condition 
of persecution which beggars description. Spies were 
placed at the doors of places of Protestant worship as 
they were at the door of our church last Sunday night, 
to see if any Roman Catholic went in. Men were 



Romanism, and the liepiihlic. 141 

arrested in bed at night, and carried off by officers 
of the holy church, and never heard of again, for no 
oftense. The system of terrorism was such that lib- 
eral Romans dared meet only in public, and never 
permitted a stranger to approach them in conversa- 
tion. Says the Consul : "I can conceive of no sys- 
tem of torture worse than this terrible espionage 
under which every patriotic Roman lay, fearful of his 
own breath, one scarcely daring to speak to another, 
except in tropes and innuendoes. They suffered the 
penalty of crime for wishing merely to be free. Had 
it not been for the system of counter espionage kept 
up by the Roman committee on the government, no 
liberal could have lived in Rome. 

The Roman government of that time (this is 1865) 
was the embodiment of the si)irit of the middle ages. 
Not a Bible could be sold. Not a voice could be 
heard preaching Christ on an}^ part of Italian soil. 
The punishment for such offence was imprisonment, 
or death. The few friends of freedom, sometimes in 
caves, sometimes in woods, were accustomed, in fear 
and trembling, to meet and pray. The dungeons of 
the Inquisition were full. The stories of their hor- 
rors are too dreadful to be told here. The testimon- 
ies of De S uictis and Gravazzi and others, which 
cannot l)e impeached, open before us damp, dark 
duno^eons, where men and women were starved to 
death ; the horrible vats where they were put alive 
into quick-lime to perish for their faith ; the secret 
trap-doors through which they were dropped, where 
their cries could not be heard, and their protests were 



142 Homanism and the Republic . 

unknown. Such was the condition of the people 
under the kind of Papal supremacy which they pro- 
pose to foist upon the United States in the end of 
the nineteenth century. 

In Spain, under Queen Isabella, in 1860, death was 
the penalty for heresy. But why need we go to 
Spain or Italy for proof that those who leave the 
Roman Church are subjects of fierce and violent per- 
secution ? There is not a Roman Catholic in this or 
any city of America that dares to leave his Church, 
unless he is willing to bear the fiercest imprecation, 
abuse, ostracism, slander and persecution ; while all 
over this country, when men and women have con- 
fessed Christ instead of the Pope of Rome, they 
have been spirited away and imprisoned in Roman 
Catholic institutions, under the care of priests ; and 
not a few of them have passed from within those 
walls, from a life of suffering, to the only place of 
rest which they could find — the heavens of God. 

Wherever Papal power prevails, there crime in all 
its phases is greatly increased. There are more 
murders, Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, gambling, 
illegitimacy, and all forms of crime, in Roman Cath- 
olic than Protestant countries. The Pastoral Letter 
of the Catholic Council of Baltimore in 1860, says — 
and here, you see, Roman Catholics are speaking for 
themselves — "It is a melancholy fact, and a very 
humiliatinof avowal for us to make, that a verv laro-e 
proportion of the idle and vicious j^ouths of our prin- 
cipal cities are the children of Catholic parents." 

While in Roman Catholic Ireland there were nine- 



Romanism and the Republic, 143 

teen murderers to the million of population ; in 
Roman Catholic Belgium eighteen ; in Roman Cath- 
olic France thirty-one ; in Austria thiity-six ; in 
Barvaria sixty-eight ; Tuscany fifty-six ; while in 
the Papal States there were one hundred and thirteen 
murderers to the million ; in Roman Catholic Sicily 
ninety ; in Naples one hundred and seventy-four ; at 
the same time there were, in Protestant England, 
only four murders to the million. Name any Pro- 
testant country in Europe, and let its depths of vice 
and immorality be measured and named, and I will 
name a Roman Catholic country or city whose 
depths of vice and immorality are lower still. (Bar- 
num's " Romanism as It Is," chap, xxvii.) 

The distinguished French Catholic Lavelaye, pro- 
fessor in the University of Liege, in a celebrated 
pamphlet on ' ' Protestantism and Roman Catholi- 
cism in their relation to the Liberty and Prosperity of 
the Nation," contrasts Protestant and Roman Catholic 
countries in their relative progress, social condition, 
growth of power, education, enlightenment, morals 
and free institutions, and in those contrasts, confesses 
the diminution, degradation and weakening of Roman 
Catholic nations, and the education, industry, activity, 
expansion and power of Protestant nations. I would 
that I could quote his eloquent words at length. I 
am only denied that privilege by the space and time 
of which I may make use. 

''A few years ago,'* he says, "the supremacy 
belonged to the Catholics. To-day, place on the 
one side France, Austria, Spain, Italy and South 



144 Homanism and the Hepublic, 

America, and on the other side Russia, Germany, 
England and North America, and evidently the pre- 
dominance has passed over to the heretics. Nor is 
it difficult to point out the causes." Can there be 
any soul living under the great opportunities which 
have been developed by Protestant Christianity in 
this free Republic, who would wish to see it under 
the influence of that power which has overwhelmed 
with shnme and crime, with ignorance and death, 
tlie fairest portions of the world? I undertook to 
show that Romanism is irreconcilably hostile to our 
Constitution and laws, and to all other forms of relig- 
ion than itself. You see what I have done. I have 
proved that Romanism denies the supremacy of the 
Constitution and laws, and affirms the supremacy of 
the Pope and the Church. They deny that the 
people under God are supreme, and declare that the 
Pope under God is supreme. The Constitution 
guarantees freedom and justice; the Pope attacks 
and tries to break down all Constitutional auanui tees 
of freedom. The Constitution forbids Cono-ress to 
establish any religion ; the Papacy demands that it 
alone be established by law. The Constitution for- 
bids legislation against any form of religious w^orship, 
the Papacy demands legislation against every form 
of worship but herself. The Constitution protects 
freedom of conscience, the Papacy pronounces it a 
delirium. The Constitution guarantees freedom of 
speech and of the press, Rome denounces both as a 
pest and a pestilence. The Constitution guarantees 
a fair and open trial by jury, the Papacy connnends, 



Homanism and the Republic. 145 

urges and employs the secret tribunals of the Inquisi- 
tion. The Constitution forbids cruel and excessive 
penalties ; the Papacy demands torture and death for 
heretics and claims the right to inflict it. The Con- 
stitution forbids legislation and appropriations by 
the State to relio^ious sects ; the Romish Church 
already has seized millions of public money in 
defiance of law. The Constitution taxes justly all 
property ; the Romish Church demands, and by fraud 
secures, exemption to a large degree. The Consti- 
tution demands renunciation of foreign allegiance 
from all citizens ; the Roman Catholics boldly avow 
their chief alleo:iance to a foreio-n ruler. The Con- 
stitution has brought the largest liberty and the 
greatest prosperity ; the Papacy has cursed the lands 
where it has ruled. 

Now as a final word. Suppose that in America 
there were six or seven millions of Russians who 
were taking the same attitude toward our Govern- 
ment as the Roman Catholics take. Suppose that 
they personally avowed, as a matter of conscience 
and duty, their primary and eternal allegiance to 
the Czar, — an allegiance he should also announce him- 
self to claim, and from which he would not absolve 
them. And suppose that this foreign body in our 
midst, took all their oaths with mental reservation of 
their superior devotion to the Russian Czar and the 
principles of his absolute monarchy. And suppose 
that they attacked, denounced and defied, personally, 
and in conclave, and through their leaders, every 
principle of American liberty, including the Constitu- 
tion which is the foundation of our riohts and our laws. 



146 Homanism and the Hepublic, 

And suppose that they announced and gave it out 
that they were bound to obtain the supremacy in 
this country ; that they would act as a political unit ; 
that they would make the Czar supreme ; and that 
nothing should stand in their way. How long 
would the seven or eight times as many loyal Ameri- 
can-born citizens permit this body of foreigners to 
flaunt the banners of absohitism and threaten the 
overthrow of the State ? One of two thino-s is cer- 
tain : that foreign body would be compelled either 
to confess primary and absolute allegiance to this 
government and to forego all treason in theory, 
speech or act ; or they would be expelled from the 
country by an irresistible force. They would be 
waited on in the name of the nation, and would be 
compelled to make their choice, either to renounce 
allegiance to a foreign potentate, or to leave the 
country. That is the way we would treat disloyal 
Russians. I regard the rule of the Czar, and my 
inference is drawn from reason and history, as much 
more benevolent than the rule of the Pope and his 
ecclesiastics. And the foreign body which is now 
anions: us, cursins^ and threatenins^ all that we hold 
dear, much more deserves subjugation and expulsion 
than the subjects of any other foreign ruler or power. 
In the name of the Constitution, which I believe 
will hold America as the Polar Star holds the maor- 
net, — in the name of the majesty of the law, that like 
the sun in the heaven has flooded this Western world 
with the glory of liberty, — we demand of every Roman 
Catholic, that he either renounce political allegiance 
to a foreign prince, or leave the country. 



Sermon Vh 

THE PURPOSE OF ROMANISM TO DESTROY OUR 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



You will find my text in the First Epistle to the 
Corinthians, the tenth chapter and the fifteenth verse : 
" I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say." 
While the intense interest which attaches to a theme 
that is so personal to every one of us and to our coun- 
try may lead us at times to a degree of earnestness, 
and, in denunciation, of possible severity, I propose 
primarily, in all these discourses, to address myself 
to the calm reason and understanding of wise men. 
Where there is no thoughtfulness, where passion 
holds sway, where superstition rather than reason 
controls the mind, it may be possible to secure tem- 
porary and indeed vigorous interest in a great theme, 
by merely lashing the feelings of men into a greater 
or less degree of earnestness or fury. But where 
the interests of every man and of his children to the 
latest generation are at stake, where the afi:airs of 
education and of the nation are deeply involved, 
where mistake woukl be almost fatal, and where 
veno'eance and hatred would be contrary to the law of 
Christ and the law of the land, it is desirable that 



148 Romanism and the Hepublic, 

our highest wisdom be exercised and our best judg- 
ment employed. 

No greater compliment can be paid to any auditory 
than that which the sacred writer in this epistle 
paid to his Corinthian brethren, when arguing with 
them concernino^ the false teachers and the false doc- 
trines which were threateninsr their overthrow. He 
says, in effect: *'I desire you to retire into the 
thoughtfulness of your own souls, to concentrate all 
your knowledge and all your wisdom upon the facts 
which I am discussing, and to listen to what I say as 
wise men, and then to judge whether what I say is true 
or not." I take this word as my sentiment toward 
this congregation ; and because you are the final 
court before whom this and many similar questions, 
must be adjudicated, I call upon you all, not to 
awaken your prejudice against the Roman Catholic 
church, and particularly not to permit prejudice to 
move you against the Roman Catholic people ; 
but I call upon you all to consider whether the 
facts that I bring to your attention are not so 
momentous as to deserve your most careful consider- 
ation, and to call for most responsible and vigorous 
action. 

It is my purpose to-night to show to you that 
Romanism intends to destroy that system of public 
education which we are accustomed to speak of as 
the jpuhlic schools; and in order to that, first, that 
you may see this as an inference, I have only to recall 
to your recollection the facts that have been empha- 
sized in the last two discourses, and that have been 



Romanism and the Republic. 149 

supported by unbounded testimony from the most 
reliable sources. You may remember that, in these 
divscourses, we have been considering the Constitution 
of the United States and the Constitution of Roman- 
ism, and that last Sunday evening, at the close of the 
sermon, I reviewed these points, almost a score of 
them,in w^hich the Constitution of the Eoman Catholic 
Church is diametrically and wholly opposed to the 
Constitution which is the basis of our government 
and the stronghold of our liberties. If you were not 
present to hear that review you should read it, for 
I want you to know that the summary which was 
made at that time showed the irreconcilable antag- 
onism of the absolutism of Rome to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. 

Now the Constitution of the United States is a 
political document : it is not a religious pronuncia- 
mento ; it is not a declaration of religious faith or 
religious creed ; but it is a declaration of those prin- 
ciples which can make a great Republic, and which 
have already made this nation, in every essential 
respect, the rival, if not the superior, of almost every 
nation on the face of the earth. When, therefore, 
you find that Romanism antagonizes this political 
document ; and when you find that the principles of 
civil liberty, which are necessary to every state, and 
which are declared in the Constitution in order to 
form the basis of a state, are the objects of the hos- 
tility of the Roman Catholic Church ; when you find 
that a document which says nothing about religion, 
excepting to say that it shall have free exercise, is 



150 Romanism and the Republic. 

denounced and proscribed with the fiercest hatred 
by the statutes of that Church, your inference must 
be that the Roman Catholic Church has descended 
from the sphere of religion to the arena of politics, 
and that, as a political power, it has assailed a politi- 
cal instrument. 

There is no other church in America that has antag- 
onized the Constitution ; no other church that has 
pronounced against it ; no other church but what 
cordially supports it. The Churches operate in the 
domain of religion ; and it is their intention and 
purpose, by saturating the public mind with religi- 
ous principles, to make the State what now it is to 
some extent, a Christian State. For this is his- 
torically and actually a Protestant State ; there is no 
question about that ; its history shows the fact. 
When, therefore, Romanism attacks our political 
institutions, reviles and antagonizes our national con- 
stitutions, asserts its authority over our political 
opinions and annuls political statutes, demands that 
the realm of politics, as well as of education and faith, 
shall be subjected to it — when the Roman Catholic 
Church enters the arena of political conflict as a polit- 
ical force, it has no right whatever to claim the 
immunities of a religion. It is there as a political 
power, and as a political power we meet it. It does 
not make any difference whether the political power 
that assails us is on the shores of the Baltic, or on 
the shores of the British Channel, or on the shores 
of the Tiber. Romanism, attacking our Constitution 
and our State, is simply a political engine. 



Romanisin and the Republic, 151 

Now with our politics, as embodied in the Consti- 
tution, our common schools are in direct accord, and 
have been since tlie origin of the government. If 
you survey the history of past times, you will find 
that the Constitution and the general intelligence of 
the country, which grew out of our schools, were 
contemporaneous in their origin. You will find that 
there has never been a time when any statesman in 
America, however jealous of the authorit}^ of the 
Constitution, has ever hinted that the common 
schools were unfriendly to it. You will find, on the 
other hand, that every American statesman, and that 
every student of civil government, declares that with 
the Constitution and the theories of the United States 
our common schools are in full accord; and, going 
farther, states, that on the general intelligence which 
they diffuse, must depend that Constitution for all 
time to come. 

Moreover, you can see rationally that a system of 
public education must belong to a Kepublican gov- 
ernment, ( and I use that word exactly as I would 
use the word Democratic, for the two words mean 
the same, as I employ them now not in a partisan 
sense,) I say, you can see very clearly, that in a 
Repul)lican government, where the citizen is a final 
authority, and where the voter is king, everything 
depends on the ability of that ruler to exercise his 
powers wisely and discreetly. You may see there- 
fore, that in our form of government, under our Con- 
stitution, every voter ought to know how not only 
to govern himself, but to help to govern the State ; 



152 Romanism and the Republic. 

and that our schools, therefore, are of infinite import- 
ance for the common people. No doubt, in a mon- 
archical or an oligarchical form of government, only a 
few need to be educated, and only a few are edu- 
cated. Where a few persons are to exercise all the 
political authority, the more ignorant the rest are the 
better the rulers like it. 

You have an illustration of that in the Southern 
United States of America when they were having an 
oligarchical and unrepublican form of government. 
They had no common schools, because they thouijht 
that the more degraded the colored man was the 
more easily he could be governed. And so, while 
the upper classes of the South had the best possible 
education, the lower classes had none at all. This 
was not the outgrowth of our Constitutional govern- 
ment, nor in harmony with the principles of American 
liberty, but it was the result of an abnormal form of 
civilization, of a barbaric institution which was for a 
time attached to our Republican Constitution. Just 
as soon as Constitutional government had sway in 
the South, as soon the whole people were recognized 
as the source of authority in government, every 
Southern State began a system of common schools, 
and they are diffusing, exactly as the Northern States 
have done, education among the people as an essential 
of a form of Constitutional and Republican govern- 
ment. 

Now Romanism is an absolute monarchy ; it is a 
despotic form of government : its idea has always 
been that ignorance is the mother of devotion, I 



Romanism and the Republic. 153 

have only to point to the States where it has had 
sway to prove this, as I have done heretofore. And 
Romanism, in its monarchial theory of government, 
which dictates to all men instead of reasoning with 
them, and which commands them instead of teaching 
them to exercise self-command, — Romanism, by its 
intrinsically monarchial character, can never agree 
with the essentials of a free Constitution, nor uphold 
its supports and bulwarks. 

While, therefore, the public schools are abso- 
lutely indispensable under our Constitution, such 
public schools are recognized by Rome as abso- 
lutely hostile to theirs. I shall come, ere long, 
to show from their own words, that this is true ; 
I state it now, and prove it hereafter. No 
w^onder then, that when they attack our institutions, 
they attack them at the point which projects farthest 
out against Papal policy. No wonder that the Redan 
of our civilization, (for you remember that the Redan 
at Sebastopol w^as the great bulwark of Russia against 
the might of the allied forces,) — no wonder that the 
main defences of our civilization are the first object 
of their assaults. Against our common schools Rome 
is throwing all the weight of its power ; not because 
the common schools alone are the objects of its hos- 
tility, but because the Constitution which our educa- 
tional system supports is the real object of their 
assault. 

Now so far as the benefits are concerned that 
have been conferred and are beinoj diffused over 
the world by free America to-day, as compared 



154 Romanism and the Republic, 

with those that are being conferred by the Church 
of Rome, there is a great deal to be said in 
favor of the good influence of America. Contrast 
any country where Rome has had sway with 
ours, and are you not immediately compelled 
to aflSirm, that the United States is giving more 
intelligence, more morality, more reverence for 
law, more self-government, more happiness, more 
wealth than Rome has ever given to any state for 
the last thousand years ? And if I to-day were called 
upon, in noting the great agents which are benefit- 
ting mankind, to decide whether Romanism, or politi- 
cal America as we see it to-day, was the greatest bene- 
factor of the race, — if I were called upon to decide 
which of the two should cease to exist, — as a lover of 
humanity and a lover of God, I should prefer to keep 
America in the world for the world's good, rather 
than to keep the Roman Catholic Church. 

After thus much of an introduction, which shows 
vou that Rome is unreconciled to our schools, because, 
as a political power, it is unreconciled to our govern- 
ment, I propose to show you, first. That the Roman 
Catholic Church denounces violently our public 
schools. I propose to show you, secondly. That she 
is threatenins: them with overthrow and destruction. 
I propose, thirdly. To bring to your attention the 
agencies which she has put in operation for their 
destruction. I propose, fourthly. To ask why? and 
to give you the reasons they allege why they do 
it ; and then to give you the real reasons which 
they elsewhere state. And I propose at that point 



Bomanism and the Republic. 155 

to close this discourse, and on next Sunday evening 
I design to take it up and tell you what they will 
put in its place : when the common schools are 
destroyed, what they demand shall be substituted 
for common schools ; what has been the result of 
their system where it has been tried, for it has been 
fully tried. And then to ask you, how much you are 
willing to yield ; and how much you are willing to do 
in the line of resistance. 

First, then, I ask you to notice that the Roman 
Catholic Church, through its hierarchs and governing 
powers, is openly hostile to our public schools. 
In order to prove that, I shall quote from the follow- 
ing authorities : From the Encyclical of the Pope ; 
from the declarations of the Roman Catholic press ; 
from the opinions of their Councils; and from the 
words of their bishops. This book which I hold in 
my hand is entitled, *' The Judges of Faith : Christ- 
ian vs. Godless Schools." I bought it myself at a 
Roman Catholic book- store in Boston, and it is 
endorsed by a large number of Roman Catholic pre- 
lates. It is said in the preface : " It may be worthy 
of remark, that these pages contain the conciliar, or 
single rulings of no less than three hundred and 
eighty of the high and the highest Church dignitaries." 
There are brought forward twenty-one Plenary and 
Provincial Councils, six or seven Diocesan Synods, 
two Roman Pontiffs, two Sacred Congregations of 
some twenty Cardinals and Pontifical Officials, seven 
single Cardinals, who, w^ith thirty-three Archbishops, 
make forty Primates and Metropolitans ; finally, 



156 Itoraanism and the Rejpuhlic. 

nearly eighty single Bishops and Archbishops 
deceased or living in the United States. It says, in 
the first page of acknowledgment: "Thanks and 
humble acknowledgments are due, and never to be 
sufficiently repaid, to His Eminence John Henry 
Cardinal Newsman, His Grace the Most Rev. Arch- 
bishop of Baltimore, Delegate Apostolic, James 
Gibbons, D. D., and Most Rev. Patrick J. Riordan, 
Archbishop of San Francisco, of Archiepiscopal 
rank, and to the Rt. Rev. the Bishops : John J. 
Hogan of St. Joseph's and Kansas City, John J. 
Keane of Richmond ( Avho was in this city the other 
day, I believe) , John L. Spalding, of Peoria, Francis 
Janssens, of Natchez," and others. This then is 
fully sanctioned and endorsed, and represents the 
Roman Catholic Church. 

First of all, I quote from the Papal Encj^clical, 
to show you how the Pope, who is the infallible head 
of the Roman Catholic Church, regards our public 
schools. Says he: "The Romish Church has the 
right to interfere in the discipline of the public 
schools, and in the arrangement of studies of public 
schools, and in the choice of the teachers of these 
schools. Public schools, open to all children for the 
education of the young, should be under the control 
of the Romish Church, and should not be subject to 
the civil power, nor made to conform to the opinions 
of the age." (Encyclical XLV. andXLVH.) Those 
schools to-day are under the control of the civil 
power and are not under the control of the Roman 
Catholic Church ; but that authority, which is as much 



Romanism and the Hejpuhlic, 157 

to them as the Bible is to you, and possibly more, 
declares that our schools shall not be as they now 
are, an adjunct of the civil state, but shall come 
under the power of the Eoman hierarchy. In this 
book which I have described, and have before me, we 
have the declaration made that the public schools arc 
to be destroyed, their buildings are to be deserted, 
and the whole system to be abandoned. 

I quote from " The Judges of Faith." On page 3 
it is said : " These pages make no pretense to dictate 
to either state Or individual in their own provinces ; 
neither is it expected of, or designed by a Catholic 
that he should aid in any secret conspiracy for the 
bootless enterprise of suddenly overthrowing a pub- 
lic legal system, unlawful though that system be. 
We bring home to the consciences of Catholics, that 
it is their duty to continue deserting all mere secular 
schools, 'and building schools of their own, until 
public opinion itself undermine what contains the 
source of its own downfall, (now notice this last 
word) andt^e he relieved of unjust taxes " And on 
the sixth page it is said: "The equal advance of 
God-hating European societies with God-eliminating 
systems of popular instruction, ought to enforce 
co-operation with the simultaneous, energetic action 
ofour glorious Leo," (I just read from the Encyclical 
what '* glorious Leo "thinks) " smiting with one arm 
the audacious chiefs of secret revolutions, while with 
the other he shields the cradles and firesides o\ 
Christian homes. And Catholics will continue build> 
ing schools on their own grounds ; until, like the 



158 Ro7nanism and the Republic. 

many deserted sectarian temples which are legally 
acquired l)y inpouring children of the Church, the 
future state-school buildings, left empty by Catholics 
deserting them, and non-Catholics becoming practi- 
cally disgusted with the unrepublican and unchris- 
tian system, shall also be lawfully acquired, and 
occupied by denominational schools." This hope, as 
the rest of the book, is sanctioned by the prelates 
indicated. 

You see, then, that their purpose, their explicit 
purpose, is to so break down our system of common 
schools until the school buildings shall be deserted. 

Now let me call your attention to the opinions of 
some of their bishops, who have made declarations 
along the same line. " The faithful are required, 
by conforming to the words of Christ's Vicegerent, 
their head and the head of all the militant faithful, 
to break down these schools ; by doing their bounden 
duty in every country where the government, or 
others, publicly or privately, seek to divorce edu- 
cation from religion, by tearing the children of the 
Church from her bosom, to nurse them on the lap 
of the Pagan goddess of Liberty." On the eighty- 
sixth page we have the following declaration : '* The 
doctrine that godless schools are good enough for 
Catholic children, is explicitly condemned by the 
authority of the Church." This is the declaration of 
the late Bishop Rosecrans, in Lent 1873. Then fol- 
low^s this remarkable statement: *'The sons of the 
Crusaders are not yet extinct. They live, they breathe, 
they fight ; not now for the sepulchre of Christ, for 



Romanism and the Repuhlic. 159 

the honor of the dead now risen to die no more, but 
for his cradle, and that of His holy spouse, the 
Church ; for the living sons of God, foully betrayed, 
robbed and plundered of goods and spiritual life by 
the ruthless of the nineteenth century." That is 
supposed to describe our school system. On the 
eighty-seventh page it is declared, by the late Rt. 
Rev. Dr. Toebbe, Bishop of Covington : " The Public 
Schools are infidel and godless, and must therefore 
be avoided." On the eighty-ninth page we have the 
same, declaration, ill the following words, from the 
Bishop St. Palais, of Vincennes, Indiana, who is 
characterized as a saint : "We object to the public 
schools on account of the infidel source from which 
they originated," (there is history for you !) ; "we 
object to those schools because the teachings of 
relio'ion is excluded from them, and such exclusion 
will inevitably produce religious iudifierence, if not 
infidelity. We object to these schools again, because 
the promiscuous assembling of both sexes of a cer- 
tain age is injurious to the morals of the children ; 
and because we dread associations which might, 
in time, prove pernicious to them, and distressing 
to their parents." And later, on page ninety, he 
says, that duty compels him to instruct pastors to 
refuse absolution to parents who permit their chil- 
dren to attend the public schools. On page ninety- 
seven you have another important opinion of the 
same spirit, wherein it is said, by the Rt. Rev. 
Francis Janssens, Bishop of Natchez, " That since 
the public schools were bound by Constitution to 



160 Romanism and the Republic, 

leave out religion, and teach science without inculcat- 
ing God, His doctrines. His commands ; hence, the 
public school system should be looked upon by every 
Christian not only as insufficient, but as positively 
dangerous, promoting, of its very nature, indifFerent- 
ism, if not infidelity." When you remember the 
authority that Romish Bishops have in their Church, 
and that their word is law for the priests who are 
under them ; Avhen you remember that these priests, 
carrying out the law of their Bishops, make those 
Bishops a most dangerous power against what they 
oppose ; when you recall all these declarations which 
are unqualifiedly against our system of public edu- 
cation ; then you can understand that their whole 
influence, as well as their fiercest denunciations, hurled 
at this method of imparting public instruction, are 
intending to destroy the system they denounce. 

But now, suppose we turn to the public press of 
the Roman Catholic Church, and hear what that, as 
further representing the influence of the prelates, is 
ready to say ; for the public press of the Roman 
Catholic Church is an organ of the dignitaries, rather 
than an organ of the people. In the Boston Globe, 
a representative of Rome wrote, in 1885 : " We want 
to make our children good Catholics ; which is the 
same as making them good Christians. We must 
have positive Christian schools, with entire liberty of 
religious instruction, even at the expense of building 
and supporting them, and though we should empty 
half the grand school-buildings in Boston, and give 
them to be sold at public auction to the highest 
bidder." 



Romanism and the Republic. l(jl 

We have also a still further declaration from Roman 
Catholic writers, this time from the Boston Adver- 
tiser, wherein a Catholic priest says: "Catholics 
would not be satisfied with the public schools, even 
if the Protestant Bible and every vestige of religious 
teaching were banished from them. They will not be 
taxed either for educating the children of Protestants, 
or for having their own children educated in schools 
under Protestant control." The New York Tab- 
let says: " The education itself is the business ot 
the spiritual society alone, and not the secular society. 
The instruction of children and youth is included in the 
sacrament of Order, and the State usurps the func< 
tions of the spiritual society when it turns educator. 
The secular is for the spiritual, is subordinated to 
religion ; which alone has authority to instruct man 
in his secular duties. The organization of the 
schools, their entire internal arrangement and man- 
agement, the choice and regulation of studies, the 
selection, appointment, and dismissal of teachers, 
belongs exclusively to the spiritual authority." 

So, one after another, the authorized agents and 
representatives from the Roman Catholic Church 
denounce our schools in the most violent lano^uao^e. 
They call them godless, infidel. The New York 
Freeman' s Journal calls them " pits of destruction." 
It states how the little lambs of the Church fall into 
them, and calls them "a devouring fire." It warns 
parents that their children will be lost forever if they 
go to these schools ; and in the language which is 
best calculated to stir the heart of a Roman Catholic, 



162 Ro'tnanism and the Republic, 

denounces those that come under the influence of our 
system ofpublic instruction. (N. Y. Freeman's Jour- 
nal, Dec. 11, 1869.) Now all this is intended, as 
you plainly see, to discredit the public schools, and to 
raise hoslilit}^ a2:ainst them on the part of Roman 
Catholic people, and on the part of Roman Catholic 
children. 

But they not only declare their hostility, they 
also declare their purpose to overthrow these schools. 
I quote now concerning their purpose, as follows : 
Mr. Parton in the Atlantic Monthly of May, 1860, 
in an article on "Our Roman Catholic Brethren," 
said, that, judging from the past, they conclude that 
in the year 1900 they will count one-third of the 
population of the countr}^, and perhaps a majority of 
the controlling cities and states of it ; and of the 
extent to which they hope to change American insti- 
tutions, should they obtain the power, the Catholic 
TPbrZtZof July, 1870, gives this interesting informa- 
tion : " The supremacy asserted for the Church in 
matters of education, implies the additional and cog- 
nate functions of the censorship of ideas, and the 
right to examine and approve, or disapprove, all 
books, publications, writings and utterances intended 
for pul)lic instruction, enlightenment, or entertain- 
ment, and the supervision of places of amusement." 
(It maybe that this censorship is what is now affecting 
the papers of our city and preventing their publica- 
tion of stirring matters of common interest.) ** The 
cognate functions of the censorship of ideas and the 
right to examine and approve, or disapprove, all 



Romanism and the Rejpuhlic. 163 

books, publications, writings and utterances" ( per- 
haps that refers to me, and to all utterances of the pul- 
pit which they would censure and suppress) "intended 
for public instruction, enlightenment or entertain- 
ment." In other words, their threat implies not only 
the overthrow of our schools, but the censorship and 
overthrow of all our provisions for free speech and 
free utterance. 

I now quote from Monsignor Capel, a very dis- 
tinf^uished Roman Catholic, who made a tour throus^h 
the country, and stopped a long time in the city of 
New York, where he was the object of very great 
attention. His utterances concerning the purpose of 
Rome were among the boldest ever given in this 
country, and among them are the following. In the 
interview with Capel — an interview by Mr. H. A. 
Cram, recorded in his *' Further Consideration of the 
So-called Freedom-of- Worship Bill," to the question 
" Whom must we obey, if the State should command 
the citizen to do one thing, and the Church should 
command him to do another ? " Monsignor Capel 
replied: "Then he must obey the Church, of 
course." The Monsio-nor remarked, that the thins: 
that was troubling him the most seriously was the 
school question ; and he added : "I have not yet 
spoken upon this definitely, but I shall go to Wash- 
ington when Congress is in session, and make a for- 
mal declaration which shall carry some authority with 
it ; for I am pursuing a careful study of your whole 
school system. The result is, there is going to be a 
fight — there are a good many Catholics in this country, 



164 Romanism and the Republic, 

eight millions, somebody says. Your public school 
system is inadequate for them, and they are going 
to leave it. Suppose that the Church sends out a 
command to State schools in every parish to establish 
and support parochial schools and send all Catholics 
to them. He says : '^ It can he done by the utterance 
of a word, shar;p as the click of a trigger." Mon- 
signor Capel ! the American people are not afraid of 
the click of a trigger. We have heard it Avithin the 
past twenty -five years. 

*' That command," he says, '^ will be obeyed ; new 
schools will spring up everywhere. What will be 
the result of that ? A fight. If it is not a down- 
right fight, it will be at least the war-like condition, 
a million or two of voting, tax-paying citizens war- 
like to the Government," etc. To the prediction of 
a fight, unless America submits to all the demands of 
Rome, we are already accustomed. The Catholic 
Herald of May 24, 1879, is quoted as saying, 
" that a most awful conflict between the power of 
good and evil is in the near future, and that the fate 
of the Republic depends on the result." And so 
cool and experienced an observer as General Grant 
said: **If we are to have another contest, in the 
near future of our national existence, it will be 
between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and 
superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other." 
He was awake to the threatenings of Romanism, as 
you see ; and he closed that memorable warning with 
the words, " Keep the Church and State forever 
separate." 



Romanism and the Republic, 165 

Now, in addition to this attitude of the Koman Cath- 
olic Church, in which they are ah'eady threatening 
to destroy our schools ( and I have not yet read it all, 
there is more to follow which will come in due order) , 
there is a definite demand made by them for a divi- 
sion of the school moneys. I say, there is a definite 
demand made by them for a division of the school 
moneys. On page 4] of " Judges of Faith," there 
is an explicit demand that the schools of this country 
be divided into Popish and Protestant. Not only is 
the demand made there ; but the New York Tablet 
of Nov. 27, 1866, now twenty years ago, said this : 
*' Appropriate to the support of Catholic schools the 
proportion of the public money according to the 
number of children they educate, and leave the selec- 
tion of teachers, the studies, the discipline, the whole 
internal management to the Catholic educational 
authorities." That demand has been often repeated 
since twenty years ago. We have also the same 
demand, in almost the same language, from the Bishop 
of Trenton. On the 118th page of this book, the 
Bishop of Trenton makes the following remark : 
<' These schools," he says, in closing up his indict- 
ment against them, " impose an enormous tax, every 
year growing greater, upon the entire community, 
and a very unjust and unnecessary tax upon a large 
section of that community." Bishop McQuaid of 
Rochester says : " No Catholic is in harmony with the 
Church who maintains opinions opposed to these 
teachings against the public schools o It is absurd to 
say that one Bishop more than another insists on 



166 Romanism and the Republic. 

the establishment of Catholic schools. It is not left 
to the Bishops to choose in this matter." And so he 
o^oes on still further in the same line. 

The demand is in the air, that the Roman Catholics 
shall have a portion of the public money appropriated 
to their schools. In the day when our school fund is 
divided and is given to sects, in violation of the Con- 
stitution of the United States, in that day our school- 
system gets its death-blow ; and in ^the day that 
our school system gets its death-blow, the intel- 
ligent citizenship of America begins to stagger 
under the same stroke. When the State schools 
in Belgium, where Rome has vast power, were 
crippled and nearly destroyed, this book indi- 
cates, there was almost general, universal exul- 
tation ; and I presume they expect a similar degree 
of jubilation and gladness in this country over a 
similar catastrophe. 

And now, as against these statements, we hear the 
denial of a priest of Worcester, however patriotic, 
who brands as bigots those who know the purposes 
of Rome and state them, whose eloquent voice not 
long since was pleading for Ireland, a voice now 
silenced under the authority of the Pope ; whose 
patriotic heart was beating openly the other day for 
his dear Ireland, that dare now only in secret pulsate 
in its behalf, because of the Papal rescript ! It may 
be worth while for him while he dares, lest Rome 
shall stop him as she has stopped him once, — it may 
be worth while for him to say that the purposes of 
Rome are in harmony with the welfare of this 



Romanism and the Republic. 167 

country ; but when the Bishops of America speak as 
in this book, and the Pope and the Baltimore Council, 
with hundreds of foreign Bishops, I am compelled, 
however much I respect this voice crying in the 
wilderness, to listen to what is the real declaration 
of Rome, instead of pinning my faith on the state- 
ments of a heart not yet dead, who ought not to be 
where he now is, under the tyranny of a power that 
crushes out manhood. Do not be imposed upon by 
your personal respect or love for any individual 
priest of Rome, for if he strikes for America, he turns 
his back on the Pope. 

The Baltimore Plenary Council, we are told in 
this book, devoted fifty of one hundred and eighty 
pages to schools, and in their denunciations they • 
traverse about the same grounc} that I have already 
gone over, making it the duty of every priest to see 
there is a parochial school in his parish, and making 
it incumbent upon him to get all the children to 
attend the parochial schools under threat of the dis- 
pleasure of the Church, and under threat of personal 
displeasure also. 

That brings me now to speak of the enginery 
they have put in operation in order to carry out 
their will; and I will endeavor to speak of it as 
briefly as I may. The power that is brought to bear 
on the Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, in 
order that they shall destroy our system of public 
education, is spoken of on page 118 of this Roman 
Catholic book, where it is declared that there is no 
option with the Bishops whether they shall favor th^ 



168 Romanism and the Hepuhlic, 

establishment of parochial schools and the with- 
drawal of the children from the public schools, or not. 
They simply are compelled to do it. In relation to 
the priests, the same attitude has been taken. Every 
priest of the Roman Catholic Church was compelled 
by the Baltimore Council to do his utmost for the 
establishment of parochial schools, under penalty of 
their displeasure. This is what the Council says ; 
and this is what it says about the priests. Hear the 
decree of the Council: 1. "We determine and 
decree, that hard by every church, where it does not 
already exist, a parochial school is to be erected 
within two years of the promulgation of this Council 
(January 6, 1886), and to be kept up in the future ; 
unless the Bishop see fit to grant a further delay on 
account of more than ordinary grave difficulties to 
be overcome in its establishment. 2. That a priest 
who, within the aforesaid time, hinders by serious 
negligence the building and maintainance of a 
school, or does not regard the repeated admonitions 
of the Bishop, deserves removal from that Church.*' 
And again they say : " The priest's promotion to an 
irremovable rectorate, or other dignity, will depend 
upon their care of their schools ;" that is to say, 
under the fear of the displeasure of the Church, 
these wifeless and childless men, whose all is in the 
Church, are told that, unless they put forth their 
utmost endeavors to get all their children out of the 
schools of this country and put them in Roman Cath- 
olic schools, they shall not be promoted, — which is 
the darling desire of their heart. 



Homanism and the Hepuhlic, 169 

And when it comes to their influence on the mem- 
bers, they bring to bear a still stronger power. 
Now it is a perfectly well-known fact, that there are 
thousands of Roman Catholics who sincerely love the 
public schools, and who are very reluctant to take 
their children out of those schools. You find that 
almost every Roman Catholic who has been trained 
in our public schools has respect for them ; and you 
will find that he prefers that his children shall go to 
them rather than to the priests' schools. How is he 
to be prevented from sending his children to them ? 
Why, all through this book, the threat is ringing 
from Bishop to Bishop, that when a Roman Catholic 
declines to take his children out of the public schools, 
he is at issue with the church ; that is, in antagonism 
to it ; and the Archbishops have given it as their 
opinion, and the Sacred Congregation of Rome as 
their opinion, and the Baltimore Plenary Council as 
their opinion, that in case the Roman Catholic popu- 
lation do not take their children out of the public 
schools, they shall be refused absolution at the con- 
fessional. What does that mean? Why it means 
this : You and I believe that God foroives our sins. 
We go to Him in prayer, and expect from Him not 
only forgiveness as he has promised, but also the 
conscious evidence of that forgiveness in peace in our 
hearts. The Roman Catholic expects his absolution 
at the hands of the priests. Every Roman Catholic 
lives in mortal terror of dying without priestly absolu- 
tion. If he dies without having made confession and 
received that absolution, he has no hope of anything 



170 Romanism and the Republic. 

but eternal damnation, and if he lives without that 
absolution, he lives in mortal sin, and under the ban 
of the church. Now these priests are everywhere 
instructed — and I could read it to you over and 
over from this book, and quote the pages from which 
it is taken, — that they may refuse absolution to par- 
ents who keep their children in the public schools. 
Is that mortal sin ? Is it a mortal sin, endans^erinof a 
man's eternal future, for him to give his children the 
benefit of American schools ? 

So says the Church. Let me give you an example 
of that, in the declaration of the Archbishop of 
Boston, whom, we would suppose, on account of his 
living in Boston, to be a liberal-minded patriot. He 
is far from it. On page one hundred and thirteen of 
"The Judges of Faith," we have some very inter- 
esting disclosures. Before that, I will give you the 
benefit of the following, on page one hundred and 
twelve: "It is notorious among the old stock of 
English descendants, that New England is fast 
becoming New Ireland [We earnestly pray that New 
England may never become New Ireland, since the 
Ireland of the Bishop is the slave of the Pope] ; 
and the land of the Cotton Mathers and Eliots is 
transforming into the inheritance of the martyred 
Rasles, Jogaes (Jesuits), and their children, the 
meek sons of the Church. Schools are bound to fol- 
low their counterparts, the congregations of the faith- 
ful," and so on. Further : "Though it was thought 
by those more conservative that the time had hardly 
arrived for anything like a general reversal of for- 



Romanism and the Republic, 171 

mer toleration of even the best common schools of 
Catholics, it was not long until there were dis- 
covered many more practical supporters of the 
change than was at all suspicioned — thanks, per- 
haps, to certain Eoman hints." This was after 
many liberal-minded Romanists protested against 
priest Scully's brutality in Cambridge. 

And here is the following from Archbishop 
Williams of Boston : '' Any priest, however, hearing 
confessions, in the private tribunal of penance, is 
free, in the exercise of his faculties, in this as in all 
other cases, to give or withhold absolution, guided by 
the disposition of the penitent and his own judg- 
ment and discretion, and his knowledge of the facts 
and principles involved." (p. 115.) That is to say, 
if a Roman Catholic is contumacious, and tells his 
priest he Avill not take his children out of the public 
school, and put them into the parochial school, he 
may be refused absolution by the priest. This in 
Boston, Massachusetts. And this fearful threat 
hangs over every Roman Catholic. You and I laugh 
at priestly absolution : the Roman Catholic trembles 
under the lack of it, and thinks his salvation depends 
on receiving it. This, then, is the enginery that 
the Roman Catholic Church proposes to use in order 
to accomplish its ends. We had supposed, until 
we had so many of these highly enlightened people 
among us from over the sea, that our common 
schools were very good, very helpful to civilization 
and the community, helpful to morals, and a bulwark 
of the Constitution of the United States. 



172 Roraanism and the Bepublic. 

They have taken this highly antagonistic 
attitude ; we would like to know why they have 
taken it. Among the very first answers is this ; 
The first position that the Roman Catholics took in 
this country against the schools, was, that we had 
Bibles in them, and those Bibles, they said, were 
sectarian books ; consequently, if the schools had 
Bibles in them, they were sectarian schools. Reply- 
ing, we said : First of all, the Bible is not a sectarian 
book. The translation of the Roman Catholic 
English or Douay Bible is from the Vulgate, and is 
notoriously a corrupted version. And I challenge 
Roman Catholic scholarship, (and remember here I 
say *' scholarship ;" I do not now refer to the ignorant 
denunciations of priest or Bishop) — I challenge them 
to show that the Bible, as we have it, is not made up 
from the collation of the very best Greek manu- 
scripts ; while their Vulgate is an imperfect transla- 
tion of the Holy Scriptures. But that is of very 
little account to them after all. 

You remember, that even their own Douay Bible is 
not in the hands of their people. You remember 
that Bible Societies have been denounced by their 
Popes from the first as a pestilence. You remember 
that I have read to you here, in the language of their 
Popes, that the Bible, in the hands of the common 
people, is dangerous. All this we have learned 
from them ; and yet when they protested that it was 
unfair to have the Bible in schools, we were willing, 
for the sake of peace, in a great many cases, to let it 
go out. No sooner had the Bible been taken out of 



Romanism and the Republic. 173 

the schools, than they specifically stated that they 
did not care a penny whether the Bible was in them 
or not. Let me read to you their exact language. 
The FreemavJs Journal of November 20, 1869, says : 
*'If the Catholic translation of the books of Holy 
Writ, which is to be found in the homes of all our 
better educated Catholics, were to be dissected by 
the ablest Catholic theoloojians in the land, and merelv 
lessons take from it, such as Catholic mothers read 
to their children ; and with all the notes and com- 
ments in the popular edition, and others added with 
the highest Catholic indorsement ; and if these admir- 
able Bible lessons, and these alone, were to be ruled as 
to be read in all the public schools, this would not 
diminish in any substantial degree the objections we 
Catholics have to letting Catholic children attend the 
public schools.^'' Now you know what a hue-and-cry 
has been made against the Bible in the schools ; but 
here is the authoritative declaration, that it does not 
make any real difference to them whether the Bible 
is there or not. It is the schools they wish to blot 
out, not merely the use of the Bible in the schools. 
It adds as follows : "The Catholic solution of this 
muddle about Bible or no Bible in the public schools, 
is — hands off. No state taxation or donations for 
any schools. You look to your children, and we 
will look to ours." (I notice, our police have to 
look to theirs.) "We don't want you to be taxed 
for Catholic schools ; we don't want to be taxed for 
Protestant or godless schools. Let the public school 
system go to where it came from — the devil. '^ 



174 Homanism and the RepuhUc, 

That is the New York FreemarCs Journal^ of Nov. 
20, 1869, one of the most respectable Catholic pub- 
lications in America. You understand then, do you? 
I think we all do. 

Then, just as soon as the Bible was taken out of 
the schools, what did they say? ** Your schools are 
godless. Your schools are without religion. Your 
schools are infidel. Your schools are immoral." 
I have not time to take that matter up in full detail, 
only I will say this ; that we cannot claim that our 
public schools teach religion as a principal branch ; 
but they have always taught morality and religi- 
ous principle, and excepting for the opposition of the 
Roman Catholic Church, they would be teaching it 
now far more than they are ; and moreover, our pub- 
lic schools are not more godless than the business 
of Christian men is godless who carry on their busi- 
ness on Christian principles. 

The third reason alleged against our public 
schools, why they hate them so, is that they are 
immoral. The pages of this book, from the declara- 
tion of the Sacred Con2freo:ation to the declarations 
of the Bishops, teem with references and dark hints 
and subtle suggestions and open statements that our 
schools are terribly immoral ; that it is perilous for 
any Catholic child to go to them, on the ground that 
it sinks him in the slums of immorality. 

And this impeachment comes from a Church that 
furnishes nine-tenths of all the hoodlums in our 
streets. This comes from a Church that furnishes 
seventy-five to eighty per cent, of the crime in New 



Hotnanism and the H&puhUc, 175 

York city. This comes from a Church whose the- 
ology is so vile that it cannot be translated into 
English, lest the translator be taken up for publishing 
obscene literature. This comes from a Church whose 
priests ask, and are compelled to ask, questions of 
bovs and oirls in the confessional, that are not fit to 
be repeated even between grown men, unless they 
are physicians. Immorality, forsooth, in our public 
schools ! The public schools criticised as danojerous 
to morality ! If, for their visible immorality, on 
such complaint the public schools should be sunk in 
the depths of the sea as a punishment, by the same 
standard of justice, the Roman Catholic Church should 
be sunk into hell. " I am not mad, most noble 
Festus. I speak forth the words of truth and sober- 
ness." I simply draw my inference from the stand- 
ard of judgment which they have made. 

But now, wdiat are the real reasons why they hate 
our public schools ; for the above are plainly not the 
real reasons. What are the real reasons ? The first 
reason is, — that they claim — Popes, Bishops and all, 
— that our schools, perpetuated and patronized, would 
result in the destruction of the Roman Catholic faith. 

That is what they say. Here listen to "The 
chief guardian of souls on earth." (That is, Leo 
XIII. Thanks be to God, my soul is not under his 
guardianship !) Listen to the chief guardian of souls 
on earth: "The design of withdrawing primar}^ 
schools from the control of the Church, and the exer- 
tions made to carry it into effect, are, therefore, 
inspired by a spirit of hostility toward her, and by 



176 Momanism and the Hepuhlic, 

the desire of extinguishing among the people the 
divine light of our holy faith." 

That is what they say. They are afraid that the 
schools will extinguish the light of their Church. 
The schools must be destroyed to save Romanism. 
Listen to what is said on page 122 of this book. 
The Archbishop sums up, — that is Cardinal Gibbons, 
Archbishop of Baltimore, Administrator Apostolic, 
&c, — in a pastoral letter : ''If no provision is made 
for the Christian culture of the rising youth, it is to 
be feared that, twenty years hence, it will be much 
easier to find churches for a congregation than a con- 
gregation for our churches." Again he says: "It 
may safely be asserted, that the future status of 
Catholicity in the United States is to be determined 
by the success or failure of our day schools." 

I^ow you know the exact reason. The Roman 
Catholic Church, in antagonism to the Constitution 
of the United States, and in antagonism to the 
common schools as the support of that Constitution, 
endeavoring to foist its absolute tyranny upon the 
American people, says : We cannot do it if you 
have your public schools. And we answer : You 
will not do it, then, till the day of judgment 1 

Our schools teach loyalty. I have been in 
the public schools. I remember that little school- 
house on the hillside in a distant country town in 
Rhode Island, where a beautiful woman, now in 
heaven, inspired me both with respect for her sex 
and ambition for learning ; where I went in summer- 
time, bare-footed, and with humble clothing, and 



Romanism and the Republic. 177 

learned the value of education by patient strivings, 
and was inspired to go further in its pursuit. I 
have been in the public schools, not as you have 
them here in the cities, in all their glory, but as we 
had them on the hills of New England. And this 
is what I remember was taught in those schools : 
Loyalty and love for the State ; loyalty and love for 
man. I remember the day brave old John Brown was 
hung (I was only a little lad,) : in our school we 
almost covered our faces and wept, to think that so 
brave and good a man was dying that hour for his 
fellowmen. We were taught there the principles of 
the Constitution. We were taught that the people 
were the source of political authority in the United 
States, under God. We were taught that every 
child had the same rights as every other, and every 
citizen had the same ris^hts as everv other. We were 
taught history for the sake of knowing the truth, and 
there was nobody there that was afraid to have the 
truth told in history. We were taught science, and 
that we need not fear that what God revealed in 
nature man might study in books. We were taught 
the principles of religion. We were taught to 
fear and reverence God : and when, on the Lord's 
day, there used to come from far the Christian 
people of our neighborhood, to that old, unpainted 
school-house, they opened the Bible and let us read 
it for ourselves, and so we learned something about 
the great and good God. That seems to be very 
helpful both to the State and to the person ; but that 
can never co-exist with Romanism, so they say 
who speak for that system of ecclesiasticism. 



178 Romanism and the Republic, 

What is all this cry of fair-play coming to ere long ? 
For Roman Catholics are saying : "If you are fair, you 
will let us have our own schools, and will give us a 
share of the money." "If you are fair," said Jefferson 
Davis and Southern rebels, "you will let us alone. All 
we ask is, to be let alone." If you are just and patri- 
otic, said the spirit which awoke when the guns thun- 
dered on Sumter, if you are just and patriotic, you will 
suppress rebellion and save the country. There is the 
difference in the theory of duty, the difference in the 
theory of fair play. If you are fair, says Rome, you 
will give up to us our schools, and you will help pay 
for them. If you love America, says the rising spirit 
of this country, you will save the schools, whatever 
the Pope says. This matter of fair play is an inter- 
esting matter, with clearly defined bounds. When 
everybody else rises up and wants the same kind of 
fair play, you see what will happen to our schools. 
But two or three weeks ago, in the city of Brooklyn, 
New York, at the commencement of one of their pub- 
lic schools, a little girl mounted the platform, and 
recited a poem against intemperance and licensing 
the saloon. She described in that poem, in her child- 
ish way, the poor man's wife begging the saloon- 
keeper that he would not sell liquor to her husband ; 
but he said he had a license, and went on and 
sold it, and she told what was the result. And 
as she described it in the pathetic way, which is not 
half so pathetic in description as in fact, she did not 
know what afterwards was disclosed, that there, on 
the platform, sat a rumseller, who was licensed and 
who had several children in that school. The rum- 



Momanism and the Republic, 179 

seller was exceedingly disturbed and greatl}^ excited, 
and no sooner were the exercises over than he began 
roundly to denounce the management of the public 
schools that had dared to insult him by having the poem 
repeated. He called together a lot of his associates 
in the saloon business, and they prepared and signed 
a remonstrance against having any of that kind of 
declaration in the public schools, because it was not 
fair to rumsellers. That is a matter of current news 
in our religious papers within the last two weeks. 
Now there are two hundred thousand rumsellers in 
the United States, and they will want everything 
taken out of our school books and out of our 
school exercises that looks towards censure of the 
liquor traffic ; just exactly as the Roman Catholic 
Church wants everything taken out of our school 
books that does not favor the Roman Catholic Church. 
Now, you will be fair with liquor saloonists, will you 
not? Oh, do ! Now suppose here comes the Hebrew, 
and says : You have on all your text-books the 
figures 1871, 2, 3, etc., as the date of publication. 
That is Christianity : that is not fair to us. Our 
school children open their text-books and see that as 
they read, and they say. What does this mean? That 
means the birth of Jesus Christ. That is anti-Juda- 
ism. And suppose all our Jewish fellow-citizens 
should rise up and say. Do be fair with us. Give us 
our own text-books and our own schools. Then, after 
them all, the Quakers might come, and say; Your 
books praise the heroism and glories of war. You 
have in them " Sheridan's Ride," and '' The Battle of 
Ivry," and *' The Battle of Nasby," and all that kind 



180 Roraanism and the liepubUc, 

of composition ; and that so teaches the glory of war, 
which we reprobate, that we want these compositions 
taken out, or else we want our own schools. 

And then the Christian Scientist comes along, and 
says : Why, you have praised there, in several places, 
the giving of medicines by physicians, which is all a 
humbug, and is contrary to our conscience ; and we do 
not want anything of that kind in our text-books and 
in our schools. Give us schools of our own, and our 
share of the public money. Then the Englishmen 
come along and say : Now, see here ! you have some 
things in your public schools about England oppress- 
ing Ireland, and we do not believe in that ; the speech 
of Robert Emmet for example. And the Home- 
Rule Irishman says : You have things there about the 
glory, greatness and beneficence of England, and we 
do not believe in that at all. Come rioht alone:, 
gentlemen : you shall all have fair play. Tear in 
pieces our whole system of schools. Let each one 
take shreds and fras^ments of a dismembered and 
ruined country, and then we can all drop back into 
barbarism, and see what beauty there is in fair play, 
as you call it. No ; the fairest of fair play, the most 
beneficent course of action to take to all classes of 
citizens, is to maintain in its integrity our common- 
school system, undestroyed and undivided. I will 
tell you what Romanism wants in our public schools, 
and I shall prove it when we meet again : Romanism 
wants Rome dominant in our public schools ; Rome 
for the controlling power, with priests for the ruling 
agents, the Bishops for governors, and the Pope for 
dictator ; and this Rome will never get I 



Sermon FEL 

THE PURPOSE OF ROMANISM TO DESTROY OUR 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS: THEIR ALLEGED 

AND ACTUAL REASONS. 



My discourse to-night is a continuation of that of 
last Sunday evenhig, and I resume by inviting your 
attention to the same text as we then used, which 
you will find in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 
the tenth chapter and the fifteenth verse : "I speak 
as to wise men : judge ye what I say." Before the 
army of the Tennessee, in 1876, General Grant used 
the following weighty words: "If we are to have 
another contest in the near future of our national 
existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be 
Mason and Dixon's, but it will be between patriot- 
ism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, 
ambition and ignorance on the other. In this cen- 
tennial year, the work of strengthening the founda- 
tion of the structure laid by our forefathers one hun- 
dred years ago, should be begun. Let us all labor 
for the security of free thought, free speech, free 
press, and pure morals, unfettered religious senti- 
ments, and equal rights and privileges for all men, 
irrespective of nationality, color or religion. 



182 Romanism and the Republic. 

Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dol- 
lar appropriated to them shall he applied to the sup- 
port of any sectarian school: resolve that any child 
in the land may get a common school education, 
unmixed with atheistic, pagan, or sectarian teachings ; 
Keep the Ohurch and State forever separate.''' He 
also wrote, when President, in his message to Con- 
gress, recommending the passage of an amendment 
to the national Constitution, " prohibiting the grant- 
ing of any school funds or school taxes, or any part 
thereof, either by legislative, municipal or other 
authority, for the benefit, or in aid, directly or indi- 
rectly, of any religious sect or denomination ; or in 
aid, or for the benefit of any other object of any 
nature or kind whatsoever." Thus this wise patriot 
and statesman, anticipating the very danger which 
we are now confronting — a demand for a division of 
the school funds, a part to be used for sectarian pur- 
poses — urged that an amendment should be made to 
the Constitution of the United States forever pro- 
hibiting such misuse. President Garfield, in his 
letter of acceptance, July 12, 1880, said: "Next in 
importance to freedom and justice, is popular educa- 
tion, without which neither freedom nor justice can 
be permanently maintained. It would be unjust to 
our people, and dangerous to our institutions, to 
apply any portion of the revenue of the nation, or of 
the State, to the support of sectarian schools. The 
separation of the Church and the State, in everything 
relating to taxation, should be absolute." The 
Bepublican party of that year dared to say that this 



Romanism and the Republic. 183 

ought to be the policy of the nation. This year 
they did not dare to say it. Here, then, we have 
the statements of two of the greatest of the statesmen 
of America in favor of the public-school system as 
we have it ; and you will remember that both these 
men were poor boys, and if it had not been for our 
system of public education, they probably would 
never have arrived at the dignity which they achieved. 
The public school system primarily is established for 
the poor, and not for the rich. The rich can compass 
an excellent education for their children at any time 
by the use of their money. It is not for the sake of 
the most favored class in our community that the free 
schools should be maintained ; but the public school 
is particularly instituted to educate the children of 
those who otherwise could not o'ive their children a 
good education ; and because it is so instituted and 
is so especially advantageous to the poor, it ought 
particularly to command the suffrages of a very 
large majority of this nation. Now it is against this 
system of benevolent education, which is so clearly 
in the interests of Constitutional liberty, that the 
hierarchy of Rome is throwing all its power, as I 
told you last Sunday night. To review a little ; for 
by their own words we prove that they endeavor to 
discredit our school system by declaring their antag- 
onism to it, and by violently denouncing it. They 
have already threatened it in the strongest and most 
earnest language, and have declared their purpose, 
the Pope, and the Baltimore Council, and a large 
number of bishops and prelates, to destroy it. I 



184 Romanism and the Repuhlit, 

also brought to your attention the fact, that already 
the attempt has been made to secure a division of 
the school fund, and that the tax, as now used, has 
been protested against in numerous cases as unjust. 
Then I showed you — and you have not fogotten it, 
and will not — that the Eoman Catholic Church is 
using all the enginery of which it is possessed, to 
compel its people to abandon our free schools for the 
parochial schools, and that bishop after bishop had 
intimated that his priests would be directed, as they 
were already empowered, to refuse absolution to 
any of their people who do not take their children 
out of our public schools. Then we paid some atten- 
tion to the alleged reasons why they take this course. 
First, that the Bible was in the schools. (I then 
showed how they repudiated that reason as soon as 
the Bible was taken out.) Again, that our schools 
were godless ; and then I brought to your attention 
the fact that that was not the real reason. I believe, 
also, that 1 spoke in reference to their claim that our 
schools were immoral ; and suggested that such a 
protest from such a source was hardly in keeping 
with good taste. Then I read to you wdiat were the 
real reasons why they desire to destroy our school 
system, and I quoted from Cardinal- Archbishop 
Gibbons the following statement: "It may safely 
be asserted, that the future status of Catholicity in 
the United States is to be determined by the suc- 
cess or failure of our day schools." 

Having made it perfectly plain, then, that they 
had drawn the lines of conflict between Romanism and 



Romanism and the Republic 185 

the Constitution, with all that supports the Constitu- 
tion, and that they were antagonizing the public 
schools because they were afraid that the public 
schools would destroy the power of the Roman 
Catholic hierarchy in this country, I then, for a 
moment, dwelt on the folly of supposing that we 
could divide up piece-meal our school-fund as they 
desire, and as the rumsellers of Brooklyn and of the 
country desire, and as a great many other partisans 
might desire, without utterly destroying the system 
and ruining the State. Having proceeded as far as 
this, I was compelled, almost abruptly, to pause. 

Bat now, on this occasion, I wish to bring to your 
attention another of the alleged reasons which they 
urge. I want to show you that the claim that it is 
in violation of the conscience of Roman Catholics 
that we should have our system of free schools is a 
fallacious claim ; and that the call for a division of 
the school funds on grounds of conscience, in case 
they have their own parochial schools, is also on falla- 
cious ground. Then I want to show you, that, after 
antagonizing the Bible in the schools, they are with 
equal urgency setting themselves against true and 
correct history in the schools. I shall then proceed 
further to show that their antagonism is not confined 
to history, but is also against literature and science ; 
and by the time I have closed this evening's dis- 
course, I shall have made it plain to you, that nearly 
all of what we call Truth has been denounced by the 
hierarchy as inappropriate to be taught in our pub- 
lic schools. 



186 Romanism and the Republic. 

1. Let us, then, address ourselves to the argument 
that is brought before us, and which is highly influen- 
tial in New England, that the Roman Catholic people 
are violatino^ their consciences in sendins^ their chil- 
dren to our schools, and that because we believe in 
liberty of conscience, therefore we should grant them 
their own separate schools, and help to support them. 
Now, first of all, you remember that liberty of con- 
science is an utterly unknown quantity in the Roman 
Catholic Church. From early times and for centu- 
ries, the bulls and Encyclicals of the Popes have 
denounced liberty of conscience. To give you an 
idea of the correctness of this statement, I call your 
attention to the following paragraph, which I read, 
for the sake of brevity and accuracy : ' ' When in 
this country we speak of liberty of conscience, we 
mean that every man shall be permitted to worship 
God as his own personal convictions of duty shall 
dictate. But the Papal hierarchy have no such 
meaning, and intend nothing of the sort. With them, 
liberty of conscience merely consists in the right to 
embrace, profess, and practice the Catholic religion 
in a Protestant country ; and not the right to embrace 
profess, and practice the Protestant religion in a 
Roman Catholic country. Protestantism cannot be 
tolerated or compromised without sin, and must be 
exterminated." ("The Papacy and the Civil 
Power," p. 35) Now, still further as to liberty of 
conscience: in the bull of Gregory XVI., of 1832, 
which is endorsed by Pius IX., we have denunciation 
and anathema upon liberty of conscience as a most 



Romanism and the Republic, 187 

pestiferous error, from which spring revolutions, 
corruptions, contempt of sacred things, holy institu- 
tions and laws, and in one word, that pest of all 
others most to be dreaded in the State, unbridled 
liberty of opinion." ("Papacy and Civil Power," 
p. 206.) Here you have manifest proof of the fact, 
that the liberty of conscience which is urged upon 
us, as a reason why they are denouncing and would 
destroy our schools, is not permitted to Roman Cath- 
olics, is against their highest law, and is the object 
of Papal anathema. Whose conscience is it, then, 
that is being violated by our school system ? Not 
the conscience of the Roman Catholic people, of 
whom the most intelligent part, I believe, are devoted 
friends of our free schools, and are very reluctant to 
have their children taken out of them. Not the con- 
science of intelligent American priests, who are being 
forced to establish these parochial schools or lose their 
standing in the Church. The only conscience that 
is tolerated in the Roman Catholic Church, the 
only conscience that can make a demand upon us 
is the conscience of the Pope ; and I am prepared to 
say, that if there is a conscience under heaven that I 
think ought to be repudiated, both by morality and 
piety, it is the conscience of the Pope. I predi- 
cate this opinion on the characters of Popes that the 
Romish Church has had for centuries, and on the 
quality of the lives that they have lived, on the 
enactments that they have made, and on the excom- 
munications that they have issued. Is the man who 
could swear so blasphemously at Victor Emanuel as 



188 Romanism and the Republic, 

did Pope Pius IX., in the bull of excommunication, 
a man whose conscience should dictate to America 
concerning its school policy ? But suppose this false 
plea of conscience is allowed, what will it next object 
to ? We have Bibles in our courts and in our Con- 
gress. We have chaplains also in our army. When I 
visited our house of correction, I found Bibles there in 
every cell. All Bibles and their free use are against 
this same conscience. How soon will they be taken 
out? It must be also against the conscience of the 
Pope, that there should rise in all the cities of Amer- 
ica churches that are not Roman Catholic, and do 
not recognize any allegiance to him. As the children 
of Roman Catholic parents behold these churches, 
they are are likely to be impressed, as they are by 
the character of Protestant Christians, that there 
are good Christians in the world beside the Pope, 
and beside the Roman Catholics. But if our com- 
mon schools, in contradicting that idea, come to be 
the objects of Papal hatred, and if the Papal con- 
science demands the destruction of the mighty fabric 
of our common schools because it is likely to woo 
their youth away from the Roman hierarchy, when 
will their conscience demand the level lino' of our 
churches, because our church edifices are likely to 
suo^o^est to the consciences of Roman Catholic chil- 

CO 

dren that their religion is not the only true religion 
in the world? And if we grant the right of their 
conscience to destroy our public schools, which are a 
structure vaster and grander in this nation than any 
piles of brick and mortar, what answer shall we 



llomanism and the Repiiblic. 189 

make them, when the Pope of Rome demands that 
all Protestant structures be levelled to the ground to 
satisfy his conscience? Liberty of conscience must 
have its limitations, and those limitations have 
already been reached. This Papal conscience is the 
same which found it necessary to recognize the 
Southern Confederacy when this nation was being 
riven by rebellion. This is the same conscience 
that called Jefferson Davis the beloved son of the 
Church. Evidently, the conscience of the Pope is 
not a good guide for Americans. 

Now when you remember that this claim to a 
conscientious right to overthrow our public school 
system is not the claim of the conscience of the 
Roman Catholic people, but is only the drift and 
purpose of the hierarchy, then you can see, that 
while we are loyal to the doctrine of liberty of con- 
science, there is no reason in the world why we 
should consent to the destruction of our schools. 

And right along that line they raise another sug- 
gestion, namely, that of fair play : because, they say, 
they are taxed for the support of public schools, and 
that ought not to be. The tax is called unjust. 
Their children are s^oino- to be withdrawn from those 
schools, they say, and when thus withdrawn, this 
unjust tax must no longer be levied on Roman Cath- 
olics. So, as M. Capel said, as quick as the click of 
a trigger, when the Pope says it, they will all 
refuse to pay the tax. Now, such refusal is not 
fair play. Do not all these people enjoy the privi- 
leges of that Constitutional government which is 



190 Romanism and the HejpMic, 

supported by our public schools? Does not the 
diffusion of general intelligence furnish them with 
better surroundings than they could have elsewhere? 
Is not this country made a more desirable place to 
live in because of the tax expended for the support 
of public schools ? If they are not deriving as great 
benefit from this government as they pay for in their 
taxes, let them emigrate to Spain or Mexico, to 
Portugal or Belgium, where they can have their own 
way. Spain is about the last state in the Avorld of 
any consequence where they can have their own 
way. Italy and Austria and France, after ages of 
bondage, are having their way now, and are renounc- 
ing all allegiance to the Papacy. But I say, if any 
Roman Catholic priest or bishop, or any layman, 
feels himself defrauded when he pays his taxes 
in America, let him go and pay his tax in Spain or 
Mexico, and have all the benefits of Papal supremacy 
and Papal law. But even when people send no 
children to school should they therefore not be taxed 
for the support of schools and for the common good ? 
How about that large number of people possessed of 
great property in the community who have no chil- 
dren and pay taxes for the support of schools ? Is 
that unjust? How about many millionaires of our 
country whose children have never seen a day in our 
public schools? Shall they, because they are not 
sending their children to the public schools, deny the 
right ()f the State to tax them for the support of 
public education ? I do not knovv about the method 
of distributing school monies in this city, but in some 



Romanism and the Mepuhlic, 191 

cities the taxes are paid into a common treasury. 
The taxes that are raised in a locality are not all 
spent in that locality, but the levies that are raised 
in one section of the state may be spent in remote 
localities for the support of schools there, because 
one county has a surplus of wealth, while another 
is poor. Do you suppose that every man who 
objects to any part of the policy of the State is going 
to have exemption from taxation for the support of 
that part of the government's policy? Suppose I, if 
I were a single man and not owning property, should 
say, I can take care of myself and do not need any 
police. Being alert and strong and tolerably muscu- 
lar, I do not intend to be taxed for the support of 
the police-force of the city, because it does me no 
good. How about that? Now you can apply this 
principle far and wide, and you will find the further 
you reason about it the more utterly absurd is all 
this talk about a division of the school-fund when 
Roman Catholics withdraw their children and refuse 
to use the public schools. I tell you, my friends, 
there is going to be a struggle on the part of the 
best of the Roman Catholics before they withdraw 
their children from the common schools, and they 
ought to count on the intelligent support of every 
lover of his country when they make their stand 
against the terrors and threats of the hierarchy. 
That is why I bring you this argument, so that you 
can remember it, and help them. 

When it comes to the argument of fair play, 
we retort and ask : Is it fair play, on account of 



192 Romanism and the Hejpuhllt. 

hostility to the best government under the sun, and 
to the freest Constitution, which gives you the largest 
liberty and the greatest privileges, — is it fair play, at 
the mandate of a foreigner, who is no friend of lib- 
erty, and whose principal care for you is to fleece 
you, — is it fair play for Roman Catholic people in 
America to lend their influence to destroy the sys- 
tem which has given them such large benefits? No, 
it is not. And when we come to the question of 
fair play, the rights of fair play are all on the side of 
the defence and protection of our schools. Keep 
before you, then, all these fallacies thus fully 
answered. The true reason was given by the Bishops, 
and by Archbishop Gibbons, now Cardinal. The 
real antagonist in this fight against our public schools 
is the political machine which Father -McGlynn has 
so correctly characterized ; it is the machine of absolut- 
ism in Rome ; not love of liberty, not fair play, not 
conscience, not morality, but the hierarchy of Rome. 
I have always had an idea that the breaking of 
machines of that sort was the best use you could put 
them to. 

2. Romanism not only cannot be reconciled to 
the Bible, but it cannot be reconciled to history : for 
the shocking iniquity of the Popes is perfectly plain 
as written in the annals of the world. If I thought 
it necessary, I should repeat quotations that I have 
already made, to show that Bibles and Bible societies 
are regarded as pestiferous by the Pope. But the 
objection that the people should not read the Bible 
because they do not know how to interpret it, is not 



Homanism and the Itepublic. 193 

ail honest objection. If the people do not know how 
to interpret the Bible, and therefore ought not to 
read it, pray tell me what books and periodicals are 
they able to interpret, and what shall they read ? 
The people are not able to interpret, perhaps, the 
protective tariff. They may not be able to interpret 
fully the Constitution of the United States, accord- 
ing to this theory of Rome. They may not be able 
to interpret natural sciences. They may not be able 
to interpret political economy. Who is going to 
interpret these for them ? The Pope ? He claims 
the right. In the matter of the Bible, they say, the 
hierarchy shall interpret. But the truth is, this 
aro^ument ao^ainst the Bible in the hands of the 
people, and the power of the people to interpret it, 
is not the reason why the Roman Catholic hierarchy 
have tried for as^es to hold in bondas^e the intelliwnce 
of their people. It is rather because, with an open 
Bible, their manhood rising up, protests against 
being kept in constant infancy and pupilage, and they 
demand the right to think for themselves. 

Now the real objection to the Bible is : You cannot 
find in it many of the fundamental dogmas of Roman- 
ism. You cannot find in it priestly or episcopal 
celibacy. If the Roman Catholic people should read 
it, they would all see that their priests are not keep- 
ing the law of God in living without families, recog- 
nized families. The doctrine of the Immaculate Con- 
ception is not in the Bible ; nor do Roman Catholic 
theologians claim that it is. It was only created by 
Pius IX., in 1854, who said, not Ions; before he made 



194 Homanis'm and the Hepublic, 

it, that he did not know whether it was true or not. 
The worship of Mary is not in the Bil)le. Purga- 
tory is not in the Bible. The Mass is not in the 
Bible. The Assumption of the Virgin is not in the 
Bible. Indulgences are not in the Bible, nor Papal 
infallibility, nor extreme unction, nor the Inquisition, 
nor Den's Theology, nor a good deal more that they 
depend on. That is the real reason why they object 
to the Bible ; because the open Bible, in the hands of 
the people, destroys the wicked pretensions of the 
hierarchy, and emancipates men from a yoke that 
neither they nor their fathers have ever been able to 
bear without being pressed down to the ground. 

But I am coming to a central point in this matter 
of controversy. The attitude that they take against 
the Bible is the attitude that they take against his- 
tory, and for the same reason. Because history can- 
not be tortured into a j astificatioii of the ways of this 
infallihle Church, therefore they object to it. Three 
hundred years ago, all Germany, and all the world, 
was shaken by a conflict on so-called Indulgences. 
Is it not a remarkable fact, that in Boston, in this 
year of grace 1888, the conflict between R(mianism 
and the public schools is over the very same thing ? 
As Luther rose up then and denounced Indul- 
gences and their sale, so it seems once more, after 
the lapse of centuries, we have got to rise up and 
protest against Indulgences as a reason why a book 
of history should be expelled from Boston public 
schools, and why a master of those schools should be 
removed from his place. I propose now to give you 



Romanism and the Republic, 195 

some insight into that Boston incident. You know 
that, not long since, Boston was convulsed by the 
action of the school board, half of whom were Roman 
Catholics, in taking out of the schools Swinton's 
book on history, and in discharging Mr. Travis, one 
of the public school teachers, from his position, 
because he had tauo^ht concerninof indulo'ences what 
the Roman Catholic Church denied, or at least the 
Roman Catholic people on that school board. 

The followino' is the exact lano^uas^e of Swinton's 
History, which has been made the ground of its pro- 
scription in Boston Schools : 

" When Leo X. came to the Papal chair, he found 
the treasury of the Church exhausted by the ambi- 
tious projects of his predecessors. He therefore had 
recourse to every means which ingenuity could 
devise for recruiting his exhausted finances, and 
among these he adopted an extensive sale of indul- 
gences, which in former ages had been a source of 
large profits to the Church." (Here is a star, and a 
foot note which I will presently give you.) 

'*The Dominican friars, having obtained a monopoly 
of the sale in Germany, employed, as their agent, 
Tetzel, one of their own Order, who carried on the 
trafiic in a manner that was very oflfensive, and 
especially to the Augustinian friars." 

Now, after this mild statement, read the foot-note, 
which was most oftensive to Romanists: ''These 
indulgences were, in the early ages of the Church, 
remissions of the penances imposed upon persons 
whose sins had brought scandal on the community. 



i96 Romanism and the Republic, 

But in process of time, they were represented as act- 
ual pardons of guilt, and the purchaser of indul- 
gences was said to be delivered from all his sins." 

Now I will demonstrate to you, out of the mouth 
of popes and bishops and John Tetzel himself, that 
Swinton's History is but a mild statement of literal 
truth, and that the only objection that can justly be 
brought against it is, that he states so kindly facts 
which are a disgrace to Rome. 

The theory of indulgences I will state in the words 
of Pope Leo X., in order that you may know exactly 
what it is, from Papal authority. Pope Leo X. 
explained the doctrine of indulgences thus: "The 
Eoman Church, whom other churches are bound to 
follow as their mother, hath taught that the Eoman 
Pontiff, the Vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth, pos- 
sessing the power of the keys, by which power all 
hindrances are removed out of the way of the faith- 
ful, that is to say, the guilt of actual sin, by the sac- 
rament of penance, and the temporal punishment due 
for those sins, according to the divine justice by 
ecclesiastical indulgence, that the Roman Pontiff 
may, for reasonable causes, by his apostolic author- 
ity, grant indulgences out of the superabundant 
merits of Christ and the saints, to the faithful who 
are united to Christ by charity, as well for the liv- 
ing as for the dead ; and that in thus dispensing the 
treasure of the merits of Jesus Christ and the saints, 
he either confers indulgences by the method of abso- 
lution, or transfers it by the method of suffrage 
(that is, favor) ; wherefore all persons, whether liv- 



Romanism and the Republic. 197 

ing or dead, who really obtain any indulgence of this 
kind, are delivered from so much temporal punishment 
due according to divine justice, for their actual sins, 
as is equivalent to the value of indulgences bestowed 
and received." That is to say, indulgences are of 
various classes, and the classes are in several divi- 
sions ; and these indulgences are supposed, by the 
theory of the Church, to remit the pains of purgatory, 
and to remit also the penalties of guilt in this life. 
(Dr. Barnum's " Romanism As It Is," p. 530.) Pro- 
fessor L. T. Townsend, of the Theological School of 
Boston, one of the cleanest and clearest scholars of 
New England, said, that after examining fifteen 
authorities in reference to a definition of indulgen- 
ces, he found that there was nothing in Swinton at 
variance w^ith their general statement. 

What are the actual facts about Indulgences, when 
you come to the practice of their dispensation? You 
will find in D'Aubigne's " History of the Reforma- 
tion," vol. I, book iii,' chapters 1-2, what Tetzel, 
who was the ojreat accent and auctioneer of indul- 
gences in Luther's time, said about his wares ; and 
because I want you to know what Indulgences really 
are, I will give you some of Tetzel's own words. 
*' Indulgences," said Tetzel, (who had a voice like a 
lion and the manners of a mountebank, w^hose vices 
were infamous, and, though a monk, had two of his 
children with him,) — indulgences are the most preci- 
ous and the most noble of God's gifts. This cross 
(pointing to the Red Cross) has as much efficacy 
as the very cross of Jesus Christ. Come, and I will 



198 Romanism and the Republic. 

give you letters, all properly sealed, by which even 
the sins that you intend to commit may be pardoned/' 
These are his own words. *' I would not change my 
privileges for those of Saint Peter in Heaven ; for I 
have saved more souls by my indulgences than the 
Apostle by his sermons." (That was rather bad 
for Peter.) <' There is no sin so great, that an 
indulgence cannot remit ; and even if any one (which 
is doubtless impossible) had offered violence to the 
blessed Virgin Mary, mother of God, let him pay, 
only let him pay well, and all will be forgiven him." 
(The consumniate indecency of the man had to come 
out even in the sale of indulgences.) *'Eeflect, 
then, that for every mortal sin, you must, after con- 
fession and contrition, do penance for seven years, 
either in this life or in purgatory." (I judge that 
Tetzel is in purgatory yet!) ** Now, how many 
mortal sins are there not committed in a day, how 
many in a week, how many in a month, how many in 
a year, how many in a whole life ! Alas ! these sins 
are almost infinite, and they entail an infinite pen- 
alty in the fires of purgatory. And now, by means 
of these letters of indulgence, you can, once in your 
life, in every case except four, which are reserved 
for the Apostolic See, and afterward in the article of 
of death, obtain a plenary remission of all your 
penalties and all your sins." 

That is not a Protestant declaration. 

Those are the exact words of John Tetzel, the 
a«"ent of the Pope, and of Albert, Archbishop of 
Mainz, who went all through Germany selling 



Romanism and the Republic. 199 

indulgences, before and after Martin Luther pro- 
nounced the ninety-five theses against them. He 
says also : "The very moment that the money rattles 
at the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from 
purgatory and flies liberated to heaven." Further : 
we o:ive one of these letters of absolution, I am 
sure you will be interested. It is worth while learn- 
ing the contents of these diplomas which led to the 
reformation of the Church : ' ' May our Lord Jesus 
Christ have pity on thee, N. H., and absolve thee 
by the merits of His most holy passion. And I, in 
virtue of the apostolic power that has been confided 
to me, absolve thee from all apostolic censures 
judgments, and penalties, which thou may est have 
incurred : moreover from all excesses, sins and crimes 
that thou mayest have committed, however great 
and enormous they may be, and from whatsoever 
cause, were they even reserved for our Most Holy 
Father the Pope and for the Apostolic See. I blot 
out all the stains of inability and all the marks of 
infamy that thou mayest have drawn upon thy 
self on this occasion. I restore thee anew to partici- 
pation of the sacraments of the Church. I incorpor- 
ate thee afresh in the communion of saints, and 
re-establish thee in the purity and innocence which 
thou hadst at thy baptism. So that in the hour of 
death, the gate by which sinners enter the place of 
torments and punishments shall be closed against 
thee ; and, on the contrary, the gate leading to the 
paradise of joy shall be open. And if thou 
shouldst not die for long years, this grace will 



200 Romanism and the Republic, 

remain unalterable until thy last hour shall arrive. In 
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen." 
The foregoing was signed by John Tetzel * ' with 
his own hand." (D'Aubigne's " History of the Refor- 
mation," vol. 1, p. 247.) Now if that had been in 
Swinton's text-book, I should not have wondered if 
the Roman Catholic members of the school-board 
had been greatly exercised, but Swinton's statement 
was not like that. If that is not a permission to 
commit sin, with a guarantee that if a man does not 
die for long years to come the indulgence will keep 
him out of hell and open to him heaven — if that is 
not what it says, then I cannot understand language. 
" A Saxon nobleman, who had heard Tetzel at 
Leipsic, was much displeased by his falsehoods. 
Approaching the monk, he asked him if he had 
the power of pardoning sins that men have an inten- 
tion of committing. * Most assuredly,' replied Tet- 
zel, 'I have received full powers from His Holiness 
for that purpose.' ' Well, then,' answered the 
knio^ht, ' I am desirous of takins^ a sliofht revenofe on 
one of my enemies, without endangering his life. I 
will give you ten crowns if you will give me a letter 
of indulgence that shall justify me.' Tetzel made 
some objections ; they came, however, to an arrange- 
ment, by the aid of thirty crowns. The monk 
quitted Leipsic shortly after. The nobleman and his 
attendants lay in wait for him in a wood: they fell 
upon him and gave him a slight beating, and took 
away the well-stored indulgence-chest the Inquisitor 
was carrying with him. Tetzel made a violent outcry, 



Romanis7n and the Repuhlic, 201 

and carried his complaint before the courts. But the 
nobleman showed the letter which Tetzel had signed 
himself, and which exempted him from every penalty. 
Duke George, whom this action at first exceedingly 
exasperated, no sooner read the document than he 
ordered the accused to be acquitted. Duke George 
was a most earnest Roman Catholic, and a life-Ions: 
enemy of the Reformation. Tetzel, speaking for him- 
self, makes manifest the wickedness and folly of indul- 
gences, to gloze over which, this very summer, text- 
books are changed and teachers persecuted in Bos- 
ton, Massachusetts ! Bishop Challoner, in his *' Cath- 
olic Christian Instructed," defined an indulgence thus : 
*' An indulgence is simply a remission or mitigation 
of those temporal punishments w^hich the sinner still 
owes to the Eternal Justice, even after the forgiveness 
of the guilt of his ofi'ence." Now w^e have here a 
Brief of Indulgence published in Sadlier's Catholic 
Directory for 1870-71 : " Saint Patrick's Day. Most 
Holy Father : James Frederick, Bishop of Phila- 
delphia, most humbly begs that your Holiness would 
deign to grant to all the faithful of his diocese who, 
having duly confessed and worthily approached the 
holy Sacrament of the Eucharist on the feast of Saint 
Patrick, shall visit their representative churches, a 
plenary indulgence, which may be accounted every 
year, and which may also be applied in favor, aid or 
assistance of the souls in purgatory." The Brief is 
appended thus asked for, granting the request, signed 
by the Pope's Secretary. I have here the translation 
of a prayer which Romanists state was found in the 



202 Romanism and the Republic. 

tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, pre- 
served by His Holiness and Charles V., in their ora- 
tories, in silver cases. After a great deal of blasphe- 
mous nonsense which you may find in that so-called 
prayer, we have the following; ** Whoever daily 
recites three Paters and three Aves,is granted by 
Pius IX. one hundred years of indulgence, corres- 
ponding with the number of drops of blood which I 
shed. And if he lives like a good Christian, he 
grants him five graces, namely : (1) Plenary indulg- 
ence and the remission of all his sinso (2) He 
shall be freed from the pains of purgatory. (3) If 
he dies before reaching the age of twelve years, he 
shall be as if he had reached that age. (4) He shall 
be as if he were a martyr, and had shed his blood for 
the faith. (5) I will come from heaven to earth for 
his soul, and for the souls of his relations to the fourth 
generation. He who carries this prayer with him 
shall not die under condemnation, nor a bad death, 
nor by sudden death. He shall be safe from con- 
tagion, from plagues, from arrow-shots : shall not 
die without confession : he shall be safe from his 
enemies, from the power of justice, and from all mal- 
evolent men and false witnesses. In houses where 
this prayer is kept there shall be no treachery nor 
other evil things, and forty days before death the 
inhabitant shall see the blessed Virgin Mary." A 
part is omitted as unfit for print or speech. ("Rom- 
anism As It Is," p. 535). 

The Rev. Dr. Hall, late chaplain to the American 
legation in Rome, says: "On a marble slab in the 



B,omanis7n and the Republic. 203 

Church of St. Lawrence is this inscription : *' Who- 
soever with devout and contrite heart approaches 
this cross, and the other (in the adjoining cloister), 
shall obtain plenary indulgence of all his sins." In 
the Church of St. Agostino, is this inscription ; 
"Our Lord, Pius VII. , granted in perpetuity one 
hundred days of indulgence, to be obtained once a 
day by all those who devoutly shall kiss the foot of 
this holy image (a statue of the Virgin and Child), 
reciting an Ave Maria for the necessities of Holy 
Church." On the gate of St. Paul is written : *' Kiss- 
ing devoutly the most holy cross in any place gains 
one year and forty days indulgence." In the church 
of St. Sebastian, at the entrance to the Catacombs, on a 
marble slab, is this inscription: " Whoever contrite 
and confessed shall have entered it (the Catacomb), 
shall obtain plenary remission of all his sins, through 
the merits of the 174,000 "holy martyrs" buried 
there. The Roman doctrine of Merit teaches, that a 
martyr in dying renders more to God than is neces- 
sary for the expiation of all his sins. The same is 
said of all saints and monks. (Bellarmine, Indulg. 
1: 2, 5). The surplus of merit of these martyrs 
and monks is supposed to be deposited in the treas- 
ure (or box) of the church, of which the Pope only 
has the key, enabling him to grant indulgences with- 
out limit, and authorizing Bishops and priests to do 
the same. Pierre du Moulin, (" Eoman Traditions," 
361) says: "These indulgences are for those who 
will pay for them." " There is no sin so great that 
the indulgence cannot remit it," said Tetzel. 



204 Romanism and the Hepuhlic, 

I do not take you any further into this matter of 
indulgences ; but when you compare what is in the 
text-book that has been taken out of the Boston 
schools, you will find that it does not represent one- 
fiftieth part of the enormity of the promises, the 
blasphemies, the follies that are in the extracts which 
I have read you from prominent and authorized rep- 
resentatives of the Papal Church, from the Pope 
down. And is Massachusetts calmly and timidly 
submitting to have a text-book taken out and the 
teacher decapitated because he dared to tell a frac- 
tion of the truth? Shades of the fathers! Would 
that your spirits might reanimate your sons ! It is 
not the utter silliness of the doctrine to which I call 
your attention ; but the question is simply this : 8hall 
our schools teach history ; or shall they teach Roman- 
ism? That question is going to be decided by the 
American public. Now Gladstone says, in his pam- 
phlet *' Vaticanism" (p. 129), that ** Kome does not 
keep good faith with history as it is handed down to 
her and marked out for her by her own annals." You 
understand that. Let me read it again. This maa 
who weighs every word, and I think has as remark- 
able power of exact statement as any man speaking 
the English language, says : ''Rome does not keep 
faith with history as it is handed down to her and 
marked out for her by her own annals." And what 
is the reason? The reason is, that Romanism cannot 
and dare not face her own history. This is true in 
every essential particular relating to the Church. 
For instance : almost every doctrine or dogma out- 



Romanism and the liejpubliCi 205 

side of immediate Christian biblical doctrine, almost 
every dogma of the Koman Catholic Church is 
exploded by history ; as for example, the Papacy, in- 
fallibility, temporal power, purgatory. All these are 
wholly unsubstantial in the light of history. Take 
all the assumptions of the Papacy of Rome, which 
depend on the allegation that Peter was the first 
Bishop of Rome. Now, from the very best evidence 
that I can get on both sides, Peter was never in 
Rome, and that has been the opinion of many of the 
most learned theologians and historians. In a debate 
in Rome some years ago, after free Italy took pos- 
session and made debate possible, all the weight of 
argument and all the truth of history was on the side 
of the belief that Peter was never in Rome. That 
the office of Bishop was held by him is without one 
bit of proof. The Bible says nothing about it, nor 
does tradition for a hundred years, nor do the fathers 
who came directly after the apostles. All tradition 
points the other way. Take another Romish dogma : 
We have in the Papacy the figment of apostolic 
succession. They think that Peter was in Rome and 
was the first Bishop, and handed down his power to 
his successors ; but to whom they do not know. 
Roman Catholic historians cannot agree, for their 
lives, on who the next four Popes after Peter are. 
There is no concord of opinion. I have here a book, 
(Edgar's "Variations of Popery,") which quotes one 
hundred and seventy and more of the leading 
writers, historians and fathers of the Roman Catholic 
Church, and the summation of their teaching is, that 



206 liomamsm and the Iiejmblic. 

they do not know who the first four Popes were, 
after Peter, who never was a Pope ! Where is your 
unbroken apostolical succession ? Nowhere. There 
is no such thing in history. 

And now further. In this apostolic succession 
there are many Popes, of some of whom it is 
altogether uncertain whether they were legally Popes 
or not. There are at least four periods where there 
were two Popes at once, and how they did curse each 
other ! I never heard or read such cursing, except 
as between Popes. You remember what a gift at 
that Pius IX. had. Well, from the first, — and that is 
one reason why we know Peter was never a Pope, — 
from the first, these Popes have used the most diaboli- 
cal language toward one another when there happened 
to be two of them. And on two separate occasions 
there were three Popes. Now which of the three 
was Pope, when all claimed to be? They were all 
cursing, — if that is any mark of a Pope, — every man 
of them anathematizing and denouncing the others. 
At the time known as the great schism, occurring 
from and after 1378, there was a period of seventy 
years in which there was a Pope at Avignon over in 
France, and a Pope in Rome, and they surely did not 
hold each other in good estimation. There were 
seventy years in which the air was blue with their 
mutual anathemas, and the apostolic succession was 
wholly unsettled. Now, you remember that these 
Popes were all infallible. I affirm to you that, by 
the authority of Roman Catholic historians, many of 
these Popes were guilty of the most infamous crimes, 



jRomanism and the Republic, 207 

and that the Councils of the Roman Catholic Church 
itself have characterized many of the Popes in lan- 
guage so dreadful that it is hardly fit to be read 
before any audience. What did the Council of Con- 
stance say concerning John XXIII. , who was a Pope 
of Rome? I will read as much as I dare to you, 
'*The Council, seeing no other alternative, resolved 
to depose John for immorality. The Sacred Synod 
of Constance, in the twelfth session, convicted His 
Holiness of schism, heresy, incorrigibleness, simony, 
impiety, immodesty, unchastity, fornication, adul- 
tery, incest, rape, piracy, lying, robbery, murder, 
perjury and infidelity." This was John XXIII., Pope 
of Rome ; and that is what the Council of Constance 
said of him, the very same Council that burned John 
Huss and Jerome of Prague. Nor was he an excep- 
tion either ; for what do they say concerning another 
of the Popes ? Benedict VIII. , the Council convicted 
of'' schism, heresy, error, pertinacity, incorrigibility, 
and perjury." At the same time, the Popes had their 
opinion of the Councils too, as you will find ; for the 
Council of Basil incurred the displeasure of Eugenius, 
who was Pope at that time ; and you ought to know 
what an infallible Pope thought of an infallible 
Council. This assemblv he called "blockheads, 
fools, mad-men, barbarians, wild beasts, malignants, 
wretches, persecutors, miscreants, schismatics, here- 
tics, vagabonds, renegades, apostates, rebels, mon- 
sters, criminals, a conspiracy, an innovation, a 
deformity, a conventicle, distinguished only for its 
temerity, sacrilege, audacity, machinations, impiety, 



208 Romanism and the Itejpiiblic, 

tyranny, ignorance, irregularity, fury, madness and 
the dissemination of falsehood, error, scandal, poison, 
pestilence, desolation, unrighteousness and iniquity." 
That is what he said. If the Pope told the truth, 
the Council was indeed a fearful set of villains ; if he 
told a lie, he was a fearful villain himself. Eugenius 
proceeded then to expel a pernicious pestilence and 
a gross impiety from the Church, by disabling all the 
members of this Council, the Doctors, Archbishops, 
Bishops and Cardinals, of all honor, office, benefit, 
and dignity : in excommunicating and anathematizing 
the whole assembly, with their patrons and adherents 
of every rank and condition, civil and ecclesiastical; 
and consigned " that gang of all the devils in the uni- 
verse, by wholesale, to receive their portion in con- 
dign punishment and in eternal judgment, withKorah, 
Dathan and Abiram." The pontifical and synodical 
denunciation extended to the Basilian magistracy, as 
well as sherifis, governors, officials and citizens. 
These, if they failed in thirty days to expel the Coun- 
cil from the city, Eugenius subjected to interdict and 
confiscation of goods. Their forfeited property might, 
by pontifical authority, be seized by the faithful, or by 
any person who could take possession. This edify- 
ing sentence is infallibly pronounced in the plenitude 
of apostolic power, and subjected all those who should 
permit any infringement on his declaration, constitu- 
tion, condemnation and reprobation, to the indigna- 
tion of Almighty God and the blessed apostles Petei 
and Paul. This was the act of the general, apos' 
tolic, holy Florentine Council, and was issued with du( 



Homanism and the Republic. 209 

solemnity in a public synodical session. ( Romish 
Historians, quoted by Edgar, pp. 96-7.) Now after 
that, another Pope — Pope Nicholas — cursed the 
Council, and having cursed to his satisfaction, he took 
it all back ; Nicholas, in the plenitude of apostolic 
power, and in a bull which he addressed to all the 
faithful, rescinded, in due form, all the suspensions, 
interdicts, privations and anathemas which had been 
issued against Felix and the Council of Basil ; while 
at the same time he "approved and confirmed all 
their ordinations, promotions, elections, provisions, 
collations, confirmations, consecrations, absolutions 
and dispensations." He denied all that was said or 
written against Felix and the Basilian Convention. 
Now when one infallible Pope exhausts language to 
denounce, and gets as good as he sends from an 
infallible Council ; and when another infallible Pope 
takes it all back, and calls the Council a lot of o^ood 
men ; I want to ask you where the infallibility of the 
Pope comes in? 

Can Romanism appeal to history for sanction of 
Papal Infallibility? Shall I have time to tell you of 
the monsters of iniquity that some of these Popes 
were? "But the Roman Catholic hierarchs of the 
middle and succeeding ages exhibited a melancholy 
change. Their lives displayed all the variations 
of impiety, malevolence, inhumanity, ambition, 
debauchery, glutton}^ sensuality, deism and atheism. 
Gregory the Great seems to have led the way in the 
career of villany. This w^ell-known pontiff has been 
characterized as worse than his predecessors, and 



210 Ro'inanism and the Republic . 

better than his successors ; or, in other terms, as the 
last good and the first bad Pope. The flood-gates of 
moral dissolution appeared, in the tenth, century, 
to have been set wide open, and inundations of all 
impurity poured on the Christian world through the 
channel of the Roman Catholic hierarchs. 

Awful and melancholy indeed is the picture of the 
Popedom at this era, drawn as it has been by its 
warmest friends. Platina, Petavius, Luitprand, 
Genebrard, Baronius, Hermann, Barclay, Binius, 
Giannone, Vignier, Labbe, and Du Pin. (Edgar's 
" Variations of Popery," pp. 108-9). 

''Fifty Popes," says Genebrard, " in one hundred 
and fifty 3^ears, from John YIII. to Leo IX., entirely 
degenerated from the sanctity of their ancestors, and 
were apostatical, rather than apostolical. Forty pon- 
tiffs reigned in the tenth century. The successor, 
in each instance, seems demoralized even beyond his 
predecessor." Baronius, a famous Roman Catholic 
historian, in his annals of the tenth century, seems 
to labor for language to express the degeneracy of 
the Popes, and the fearful deformit}^ of the Popedom. 
"Many shocking monsters," he sa^s, "intruded 
into the pontifical chair, who were guilty of murder, 
assassination, simony, dissipation, tyranny, sacrilege, 
perjury, and all kinds of miscreancy." "The 
Church," says Giannone, " was then in a shocking 
disorder, in a state of iniquity." The greatest of the 
Popes was Gregory YIL, known as Hildebrand. 
Now concerning Gregory VIL we have an opinion, 
and we have a declaration from Roman Catholics of 



Romanism and the Repuhlic, 211 

the hiofhest standinsf in those times, that he was 
elected through force and bribery and without the con- 
currence of the emperor or clergy. He obtained his 
supremacy, in the general opinion, by gross simony ; 
but he had the hardihood to pretend that his dignity 
was intruded on him aoainst his will. The Councils 
of Worms and Brescia depicted his character with 
great precision. The Council of Worms, compre- 
hending forty-six of the German prelacy, met in 
1076, and preferred numerous imputations against 
Gregory. This Synod found His Holiness guilty 
of usurpation, simony, apostasy, treason, schism, 
heresy, chicanery, dissimulation, fornication, adultery 
and perjury. His Holiness, in the sentence of the 
German prelacy, preferred harlots to women of char- 
acter, and adultery and incest to just and holy matri- 
mony. The Council of Brescia, which was composed 
of thirty bishops, and many princes from Italy, 
France and Germany, called Gregory a forni- 
cator, an impostor, an assassin, a violator of the 
canons, a disseminator of discord, a disturber. 
He had sown scandal among friends, dissensions 
among the peaceful, and separation among the mar- 
ried. The Brescia n fathers then declared His Holi- 
ness guilty of bribery, usurpation, simony, sacrilege, 
vain-glory, ambition, obstinacy, perverseness, sor- 
cery, divination, necromancy, schism, heresy, infidel- 
ity, assassination and purjury." These are the words 
of Councils of the Roman Catholic Church concernins: 
the character of the greatest Pope — unless Innocent 
III. disputes that eminence with him — that ever sat in 



212 Romanism and the Republic. 

the Papal chair in Rome. Boniface III. was as bad, or 
worse. Sixtus lY., in 1471, just before the discov- 
ery of America, is characterized in terms as lior- 
rible. Of one of the Popes it is said, he was con- 
victed of forty crimes. The Fathers of Trent found 
him guilty of — I will not read the list. You are 
getting quite familiar with it ; and there are some 
parts of it that you never will get familiar with 
from my reading. 

Alexander YI., Pope of Rome, was a Borgia, and 
the very name is associated with the wickedness of 
wickedness. If ever there was a monster on earth 
who was guilty of every imaginable crime that could 
belong to a person that had disgraced human nature 
by the vilest uses, Alexander YI. was one of those 
men. 

Now, my friends, I will give you a morsel that is 
more remarkable than anything yet said. I hold in 
my hand a modern History, which I suppose the 
Romish Church intends to put in the place of Swin- 
ton's. This modern History is written by Peter 
Fredet,D. D., and was published by J. Murphy & 
Co., of New York, in the year 1886. On the 511th 
page of this History, I find the following declara- 
tion about these Popes: *'It is true, a few among 
them gave great scandal to the Christian world in 
their private character and conduct ; but it ought to 
be remembered at the same ti7ne, that, through a spec- 
ial protection of Divine Providence, the irregularity 
of their lives did not interfere with their public duty, 
from which they never departed. The beneficial 



Romanism and the Hepublic, 213 

influence of sacred jurisdiction does not depend on the 
private virtue of the persons invested with it; but 
on their divine mission and appointment to feed the 
Christian flock. Nor did Christ promise personal 
sanctity to its chief pastors ; but irave to them author- 
ity to teach and govern the faithful." That is Roman 
Catholic history. Monstrous ! Monstrous ! ! The 
Popes who, by Roman Catholic authority, are char- 
acterized in terms that carry with them the utmost 
condemnation, are declared by a Roman Catholic 
historian, in 18^6, to be so correct in their adminis- 
tration that it makes no difi'erence how they live ! 
They are equally infallible, whatever their vices and 
crimes ! I am reminded of what was said once by a 
man who was told, in the case of a Bishop of scanda- 
lous character, that the Bishop did not sin ; it was 
the man that sinned. The Bishop was sinless, though 
the man was wicked. He simply asked: "Pray 
tell me, what will become of the Bishop when the 
devil gets the man ?" 

Let me ask you, now, what history will give us in 
defense of the doctrine of purgatory, through which 
Rome wrings, from superstition, countless millions 
of money. 1 have here a letter from the late Chap- 
lain of the American legation in Rome, who has 
given close attention to the study, and who writes 
also in regard to indulgences. After stating that 
"the Pope can give a living man indulgence of his 
sins ;" we have the following citations, which are of 
very great interest: "The doctrine of purgatory 
was declared to be an article of faith in the Roman 



214 Romanism and the Republic, 

Church, by the Council of Florence, only in the 
year 1439." (That is, up to that time, for 1450 
years nearly, either purgatory was undiscovered, or 
the souls of Catholics and everybody else went to it, 
and nobody knew it! And are they there yet?) 
*'In the latter part of the fifteenth century. Pope 
Alexander VI. was the first to declare that indul- 
gences delivered souls from purgatory." (^In the 
latter part of the fifteenth century^ you see I) Car- 
dinal Cajetan, before whom Luther was summoned, 
said in a tract on indulgences : " We have no certain 
knowledge in regard to the origin of indulgences ; and 
we possess in writing no authority on this subject, 
nor in Holy Scripture, nor in the writings of the 
ancient fathers, nor of the Greek and Latin doctors." 
Cardinal Fisher, in confuting Luther, said : '* As to 
indulgences, it is uncertain by whom they were insti- 
tuted ; and as to purgatory, no mention is made of 
it by the ancients ; so that belief in indulgences and 
in purgatory has not been necessary to the primitive 
Church." Take away purgatory, and no one will 
need indulgences, or seek them. Purgatory and 
indulo^ences are all a modern invention ; and when 
you come to study and read history, you will find 
that the Roman Catholic dogmatic system cannot 
stand in the face of history for a day or an hour. 

And what of Mariolatry and other similar blasphe- 
mies? I declare to you that now, when it is time to 
close, I am not half through this line of thought, and I 
am not going to try to finish it to-night. Such is the 
abundance of evidence proving that the pretensions 



Floinanism and the Republic. 215 

of Romanism are inconsistent with all truth, and 
with all open study of what is necessary for men to 
know, that our contempt for the false claims of this 
infallil)ility increases with proof, until it piles up 
an indictment which disannuls forever the claims of 
Rome, and which seems to say to every citizen of 
this Republic : Against Roman usurpation, based on 
falsehood in the name of truth, yield not for one 
hour, not for one moment ! 

I have not told you how she changes history. It 
it is only a question of time with me that I should. 
But I have to add one thino^ that is more startlins^ 
than anything that I have hitherto said : By the 
doo'mas of the Roman Catholic Church, as laid down 
by Cardinal Manning, the Pope is the judge of ivhat 
history is ; and if he says that a thing did not exist, 
notwithstanding the world knows it did, — if he says 
that certain facts are not historical, the Church is 
bound to believe him ! 

" History is a Avilderness into which inf^dlibility 
will allow no one to wander without guilt of his own 
appointment, and it denies to every man the right to 
exercise his own reason or common seixse in separat- 
ing the true from the false." (" Papacy and the 
Civil Power.") 

" If any one say," says Cardinal Manning, (" The 
Vatican Council and its Definitions," page 121,) — 
"If any one say that there is no judgment but 
right reason, or common sense, he is only reproduc- 
ing in history what Luther applied to the Bible. 
Again, in Catholics such a theory is simply heresy." 



216 Romanism and the Hepuhlic. 

Why? He answers thus: "The only source of 
revealed truth is God : the only channel of that 
revelation is the Church. No human history can 
declare what is contained in that revelation. The 
Church (the Pope) alone can deteraiine its limits, 
and therefore its contents. And when the Pope, 
acting for the Church, does determine what are its 
limits and co7itents, no difficulties of human histori/ 
can prevail against it. The Church is its own evi- 
dence, anterior to its histori/, and independent of it. 
Its history is to he learned of itself.'" It is under his 
dictation that they are telling Boston schools what 
shall be taught as history. And they are coming to 
Worcester to tell you ; and what are you going to 
say to them? lean imagine. I have faith for the 
future. I had laid out here, in my discourse, to read 
to you from Fredet's History, of 1886, a precious lot 
of things that are as far from the truth as the poles 
are apart. I had intended to tell you how intoler- 
ant they are of nearly all our books ; to bring before 
you an incident not yet four weeks old, where the 
Papal power, after having sanctioned a book and 
said that the faithful might read it, has now resolved 
that the book ought not to be read, and put its lead- 
ing proposition on the Index Expur gator ins. I had 
intended to tell you of the Index Expurgatorius, and 
in what attitude the Papal Church stands toward all 
literature and science. But I have only time at this 
moment to draw to an abrupt close, deferring these 
revelations to another day. I want you to know 
them all. I cannot bear that you shall go into this 



Homanism and the Hepublic. 217 

conflict half equipped. I do not want the insolent 
and arrogant priests of Rome to tell you, either in 
their papers or in their churches, a mass of lies, that 
are lies in the face of their own history, and have you 
believe them. I am simply giving you ammunition. 
I am only bringing before you a variety of facts of 
the utmost importance for you to know before you 
advance to the attack. Let us put on the shield of 
truth, against which every Romish pretence is shiv- 
ered ; as are shivered the javelins of hate on the 
bucklers of Almighty God. We know what correct 
history is. Did our ancestors persecute the Quak- 
ers? We know it, and are ashamed of it. Did they 
hang the Avitches? We admit it, and say. It never 
shall be so again ! No matter what the imputation, 
if it be truth, admit it. An honest man, or Church, or 
State, has no reason to deny a frank, fair declaration 
of fact. But if we professed to be an infallible 
Church, and were resolved that all was perfect, and 
had always been, and had resolved to stand up for 
everything we and our ancestors had done, we would 
be compelled, either to deny the truth, or else to 
bend it in justification of the enormities of former 
days. 

That o^iant amongf men of thous^ht, Victor Hus^o, 
said, in a marvellous paper, which I shall read in your 
hearing yet one day, that after all the mischief they 
had done elsewhere, Rome was now assailing France. 
*' But," he said, with that singular felicity of expres- 
sion w^hich characterizes his writino:s, " France is a 
lion, and is alive." And here — in the presence of 



218 Romanism and the Hepublic, 

these confessed and hostile desio^ns with which 
Komanists assail our national policy and free institu- 
tions, counting on our acquiescence and the effects 
of hidden treachery — I take up the words of that 
herald of freedom in France, and sa}^ for the benefit 
of the hierarchy wherever they are, whether in Wor- 
cester or in Rome : '* Beware ! America is a lion, 

AND IS alive I " 



Sermon VMl. 

THE PURPOSE OF ROMANISM TO DESTROY OUR 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



" I speak as to wise men ; judge ye what I say :" 
these have been the words of my text for two con- 
secutive Sunday evenings, and because the three ser- 
mons on our public schools are practically one, these 
are the words of my text to-night. You find them in 
1 Corinthians, 10 : 15. I have no time for intro- 
ductory remarks, save for a word in review. I great- 
ly desire that as wise men you shall keep distinctly 
in mind exactly what I propose to show. I have 
shown you that the Eoman Catholic Church is hostile 
to the constitution of the United States, and to our 
public schools, which are an adjunct and a necessity 
to that Constitution. I have shown you that its hos- 
tility to the common schools has been exhibited by 
disparaging them, by threats against them, by the 
expressed determination to ruin them if possible, by 
demands for a division of the school fund, by protests 
alleged, though falsely, to be founded on conscience 
and on fair play, by opposition to the Holy Scriptures, 
and also by opposition to correct history. When we 
closed our review on last Sunday night, I was show- 
ing that the Roman Catholic Church, in its fear that 
public education would work its destruction, and in 



220 Roraaniam and the Hepublic, 

its determination to destroy the common schools, not 
only ol)jects to the Bil)le and to history, but that it 
carries its objections against almost everything that 
we call truth. 

Turning to this book, *' Judges of the Faith " (which 
I described to you before, the Eoraan Catholic book 
which is endorsed by hundreds of prelates from the 
Pope down ), I call your attention next to the fact, 
that on the 11th, 21st and 24th pages, not only the 
Bible and History are declaimed against, but also the 
Readers that are used in our public schools, and all 
our school literature, in general. Here are objections 
offered not only to Svvinton, but to Wilson, Hume and 
Hallam, to Peter Parley, and many other historians ; 
and the most contemptuous characterizations are 
given to a great variety of other school literature. On 
the 24th page, they speak very contemptuously of a 
History which contains the following allusions, as they 
quote : " Indulgences sold for profit" (we fortunately 
know something about that); ''actual pardons of 
guilt ;" the Murder of Mary, Queen of Scots, justified, 
and herself vilified (see Froude's late researches) ; 
the Thirty Years' War put upon Ferdinand II., en- 
deavoring to extinguish Protestantism ; Philip II. 's 
schemes "principally actuated by bigotry ;" "the glori- 
fication of Garibaldi, the famous Italian patriot." 
All these phrases are held up as though erroneous 
and wicked. And yet they are true ! 

What does Italy think of Garibaldi, whom they re- 
fuse to acknowledge as an Italian patriot ? I will tell 
you. If you visit the Hall of Representatives in Rome, 



Romanism and the Republic, 221 

where o^ather the men who now leo:islate for free 
Italy, you will find that one seat is taken avvay, and 
in the place where that seat formerl}^ was is a silver 
plate, on which we read that Garibaldi once sat there, 
and because they think no man is worthy to be his 
successor, they have removed his chair. While 
Romanism hounds Garibaldi, Italy reveres him as a 
patriot. 

The objections of Romanists to our school books 
are so general, that in Cincinnati, in the year 1869, 
Archbishop Purcell, (who gained great notoriety 
in this country by stealing a million or two of dol- 
lars from the Roman Catholic Church — if, indeed, it 
could be called stealing, for the Bishop has a right 
to all he can get in the Roman Catholic Church, and 
holds in his own name all the church property of the 
diocese) — Archbishop Purcell objected to the books 
of general reading and reference in the libraries of 
the schools in Cincinnati; and the school committee, 
disposed to make peace, permitted him to take a 
catalogue of the library books and indicate what 
w^orks should be removed from those libraries. That 
was witnessed in 1869, in Ohio. Will it be a happy 
day for America, for literature and for general intelli- 
gence, when the Roman Catholic Church takes out of 
all our school libraries the books that it objects to ? 
We wonder what will be left. They claim and 
expect the censorship of all literature, and all utter- 
ances of the press, platform and pulpit, as I read to 
you from the Catholic World last Sunday night. 

Now the censorship of Rome over all this litera- 



222 Momamsm and the Republic. 

ture, not only biblical and historic, but scientific 
also, is a part of the machinery of that church. 
They have in Romanism, exercising authority 
throughout the world, what is called The Sacred Con- 
gregation of the Index, over which a Cardinal, and 
sometimes a Pope presides, and which meets every 
Monday in Rome. It is the duty of this committee 
of the Roman Catholic Church to determine what 
books shall be permitted to be published, read and 
studied throughout the Roman Catholic world, and 
what shall be forbidden. When a book is objection- 
able to them, they refuse to have it printed and cir- 
culated ; when a book is favorable to Romanism, they 
consent to its circulation. So fierce is the antao^onism 
of the Roman Catholic Church to books that are 
obnoxious to them, that, long centuries ago, an edict 
of excommunication was issued against all persons 
who either printed, or possessed, or read heretical 
books. I will read you from that bull. The 
earliest one published is that by Gregory XII. in 
1411, which was renewed, with additions, by Pius Y. 
His bull was renewed under the same name by 
Urbane YIII. in 1627, and finally as a bull of excom- 
munication by Pius IX., on the twelfth of October, 
1859. The first article of this bull is as follows : 
*' We excommunicate and anathematize, in the name 
of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and by the 
authority of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and 
by our own, all Wickliffites, Hussites, Lutherans, 
Calvinists, Huguenots, Anabaptists, and all other 
heretics, by whatsoever name they are called, and of 



Romanism and the Hepublic. 223 

whatsoever sect they be ; and also, all schismatics, 
and those who withdraw themselves, or recede 
obstinately from the obedience of the Bishop of 
Rome ; as also their adherents, receivers, favorers, 
and generally any defenders of them ; together with 
all who, ivithout the authority of the Apostolic See, 
shall, knowingly, read, keep or print any of their 
books which treat on religion, or for any cause what- 
ever, publicly or privately, on any pretence or color, 
defend them." That is to say, we have a bull 
endorsed by at least five Popes, of excommunication 
against those who shall dare to publish, circulate, 
read or possess books that are forbidden by the 
Sacred Inquisitorial Congregation of Rome. 

And what is the penalty pronounced by the con- 
ofresfation and church as^ainst those who have violated 
this bull of the Pope ? You will find, when you come to 
study the history, that very heavy fines and penalties 
have been denounced upon persons who shall publish, 
and even those who shall possess, such books. 
Under a King of Spain, by Papal direction and 
sanction, death was the penalty for those who pos- 
sessed books forbidden by the Sacred Congregation 
of the Index. 

The Roman Catholic Church does not merely 
object to the Bible, and to history ; but it also 
objects to science, it objects to literature, it objects 
to every department of knowledge that is contrary 
to its pretensions ; and that objection is carried so 
far, that the curse of excommunication is pronounced 
on any who shall dare to have books which they 



224 Romanism and the Republic, 

have proscribed, and shall presume to study books 
which they have denounced. You will be interested 
at the citation of one sample of how their policy 
worked in a matter of science and scientific investi- 
gation. On the fifth day of May, 1616, The Sacred 
Congregation of the Index denounced and forbade 
the Copernican theory that the earth moves round 
the sun. They denounced it as a heresy ; cursed 
those that taught it, anathematized those that printed 
it, and threatened those that believed it. There has 
been a great deal of wriggling on the part of the 
Roman Catholic Church to avoid the responsibility 
of this act, but truth is strong ; and when the Eoman 
Catholic Church grapples with the truth of history, 
history is ultimately sure to win in the conflict. 
Later, in 1620, they denounced Copernicus by name. 
Then they denounced Galileo, and arrested him, and 
threatened him, and imprisoned him, and made him 
aflfirm that the earth did not move around the sun ; 
and when he said it, he muttered under his breath, 
*'But it does move." Galileo's book appeared in 
1632, and was condemned in 1634. That edict of 
the Roman Catholic Church left the Copernican 
theory on the list of forbidden books in the Index 
Uxpurgatorius until 1835. Every man, therefore, 
who dared, up to 1835, to believe that the earth 
moved round the sun, or dared to teach it or print 
it, or who had a book in his house or in his posses- 
sion which stated it, — every such man was excom- 
municated and damned by the Pope of Rome and 
The Sacred Congregation. Do you propose to take 



Romanism and the Republic, 225 

your science from an authority like that ? Yet if in 
the public schools the movement of the earth round 
the sun had been taught anytime before 1835, Rom- 
anists would have objected just as strongly to this 
Copernican theory that the earth moves round the 
sun as they object to Swinton's History ; and I sup- 
pose that some cowards would have let them forbid 
the book in the public schools. I do not believe we 
are ready to have our text-books assorted by such 
scientists. In 1835, from the Index Expurgatorius, 
(of which, fortunately, I happen to have through the 
kindness of a friend two copies), and without a word 
of apology, the books on the Copernican theory, for 
the first time in two centuries, were omitted from the 
list of forbidden publications. 

In the year 1844, there was formed in the City of 
Montreal the Montreal Institute, — a company of 
young men mostly Roman Catholics, who desired to 
improve themselves through association and through 
literature. They gathered together a library of 
about nine thousand volumes : and at leno:th it besran 
to be noised abroad that there were heretical books 
in the library. The Bishops interfered, and endeav- 
ored to break up the Montreal Institute. The 
gentlemen composing that Institute handed out their 
cataloo:ue and said: "What is there here that is 
obnoxious?" There was no answer. Hostility did 
not take the form of debate. It was understood 
that Milton's " Paradise Lost " and Dante's " Inferno" 
and " Paradiso " were among the books objected to. 
An edict of ecclesiastical censure was pronounced on 



226 Romanism and the llepublic, 

the Montreal Institute, and that Institute appealed 
to E-ome. Among the leading men of the Institute 
was Joseph Guibord, a printer, a man of great intelli- 
gence, who became the object of distinct hostility 
because of his desire to perpetuate the Institute and 
keep their library intact. While the matter was 
pending, Joseph Guibord died, and the attempt was 
made to bury him in what is known as "sacred 
ground," where he owned a lot, somewhere about the 
last of November, 1869. The attempt was met by the 
resistance of a mob of Roman Catholics, inspired by 
the leading church officials, who so far hindered and 
forbade that poor body being laid to rest in the lot 
which he had purchased, that the remains were taken 
to a Protestant cemetery, and temporarily placed in 
the vault. Then began litigation in the courts, to see 
whether the body of Joseph Guibord should lie in 
his own lot. What was his offence ? He belonsjed 
to the Montreal Institute which had not instantly 
yielded when the hand of the Bishops was laid upon 
it ; because it was seeking for intelligence, and, to a 
degree, for freedom of thought. An appeal was 
made to the courts to permit the body to be buried. 
Some courts decided one way, and some another. 
Meanwhile, Mrs. Guibord, who was a brave and 
earnest woman and a Roman CatiiOiic, gave her 
effort to the work of securing the right to bury her 
husband in his own cemetery lot, and dying, left her 
estate for that purpose. At length an appeal was 
taken to the privy council of Great Britain, and it 
was decided that the body should be buried in 



itomayiism and the Republic. 221 

sacred ground. Then followed mobs, disturbances 
and denunciations, the like of which even Canada, 
priest-ridden as it is, had hardly seen. The grave 
was prepared ; and finally, guarded by the military, 
in the presence of a howling mob, the body of Joseph 
Guibord was laid in the grave, and cement of the 
strongest sort, mixed with iron, was poured in over 
it, in order to keep it safe from the fury of the 
enraged Romanists. Then the Bishop of Montreal 
apostolically cursed the ground where this man's 
remains lay — cursed it with mocking tones, as if the 
voice of Joseph Guibord was speaking from the 
ground. Some one inquired how far down his curse 
went, as the wife's body was laid in the same grave, 
and she was a good Catholic and not excommunicated ! 
He cursed it with the remarkable facility for cursing 
which priests have, in the presence of the Roman 
Catholics of Montreal, and went unrebuked by his 
fellow-bishops, and by the Pope of Rome. What 
was the offence for which Joseph Guibord's dust was 
cursed? That he belonged to a library association 
which dared to think without priestly and papal 
repression, and to own Milton's " Paradise Lost" and 
Dante's " Paradiso " and " Inferno." I should think 
that the Bishop of Montreal might well take Dante's 
* 'Inferno" and read in it a description of his own future 
habitation, if he dared to curse a man for loving 
truth and freedom. Now the Roman Church blesses, 
and now agam curses, and it is a little doubtful when 
and why. 

Forty or fifty years ago, Rosmini, a distinguished 



228 Romanism and the Republic. 

ecclesiastic of the Roman Catholic Church, a man of 
learning, who was an intimate friend of three of the 
Popes, published certain scientific books. These 
books were repeatedly attacked, and came three 
times before The Congregation of the Sacred Index. 
Every time they came, the Congregation said there 
was nothing in them contrary to the theology or 
doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. But the 
Jesuits were busy. They kept insisting that these 
books ought not to be circulated. The Sacred 
Congregation insisted that they should ; and finally, 
the Pope issued an edict that there should be nothing 
more said about it. The Jesuits worked on as they 
always do, Pope or no Pope, and within the last few 
months The Sacred Congregation have taken forty of 
the leading propositions of Rosmini's book, con- 
demned them, and demanded that those shall be 
taken out of the books, if they are circulated. When 
you yield your Swinton's History in the public schools, 
when you yield your Bible, you are simply on the 
line of yielding everything. There is no limit or 
stopping-place at which Rome says : You may per- 
manently have these books in your schools. 

I want 3'ou to notice this ; because, when our 
Massachusetts committees, in their desire to be kind 
and fair, begin to yield, they begin to slide down an 
inclined plane with accelerated velocity, and they 
do not know where they will stop. You never can 
satisfy Rome until you are her absolute slave. This 
is the point at which I purposed to close my last 
Sunday evening's sermon. 



Homanism and the Republic. 229 

I was hoping to get as far as this. Then I meant 
to show you that, in order to satisfy Roman Catholics, 
you must take out of the public schools all our 
Bibles ; all books that speak disrespectfully of those 
Popes of whom I read you so many interesting facts 
last Sabbath evening ; all books that condemn any 
doctrine that has been praised by Rome, or praise 
any doctrine that has been condemned by Rome ; 
therefore, all works on political economy according 
to the principles of the Constitution of the United 
States ; all books on natural science that are obnoxi- 
ous to the priests of The Sacred Congregation. And, 
by the way, how long will they allow us to teach 
Chemistry? since chemistry proves that the *' Sacri- 
fice of the Mass" is folly, and that the wafer is no 
more the body and blood of Jesus Christ, after the 
priest has spoken over it, than it was before. 

So our scientific books and our Bibles, our histo- 
ries and our literature, are to be taken out of the 
schools, and you want to know what we shall have 
in their place. What kind of a system of public 
education does Rome intend to give us ? What do 
they want taught in our schools ? and if we yield to 
them what shall we have? When we know this, 
then we shall know the plans of this Church, and 
what we can rely upon for the future. To answer 
these important questions, I have so much to say that 
I can adorn it very little, and must speak with great 
directness concerning the general system of Roman 
Catholic education. In this first book, "Judges 
of the Faith," page 139, I read the following words 



230 Romanism and the Republic . 

from The Sacred Congregation of Kome, endorsed 
by The Third Baltimore Plenary Council : ' ' Reserv- 
ing the exclusive right of the priest as regards, partic- 
ularly, the appointments and dismissal of teachers, the 
discipline of the school, and superintendence in spir- 
ituals." We are, then, to have a system of education 
as far as the Roman Catholic Church goes, that is 
exclusively presided over by priests ; and they, as 
you know, are compelled to further this scheme of 
parochial schools, for the sake of their own prefer- 
ment ; which they will lose, unless they do further it. 
The duty of the laity is also prescribed in this 
book, in the following words : ** Nor with less zeal 
and prudence is the erroneous opinion to be 
uprooted from the minds of the laity ; viz., that the 
solicitude for the school is to be confined to that 
portion of the congregation actually and directly 
making use of it for their children. It must be 
plainly demonstrated, that the profits and blessings 
accruing from the preservation of faith and morals 
in parochial schools redound to the benefit of the 
whole community." That is to say, if Roman Cath- 
olic parents have no children in the parochial schools, 
The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore expressly 
insists that those parents shall pay their money into 
those schools for their support, and shall do all they 
can for their prosperity. But, remember, it is a mat- 
ter of conscience with many Roman Catholics that 
they shall not support parochial schools. What 
then? We heard them claim, that because their con- 
sciences demand parochial schools, therefore we must 



Romanism and the JRepuhlic. 231 

yield our system to them. And now this is their 
demand, within their own communion, that those who 
have no children in the parochial schools, and who do 
not believe in the parochial schools, shall be com- 
pelled to support them. How about conscience? 
Is this freedom of conscience? I tell you, the Roman 
Catholic Church never says Conscience when it has 
any other meaning than submission to the Pope. 
Never ! 

We have it indicated here in this book, on page 
141, that the preferred teachers of Rome are monks 
and nuns. We have the statement of Father Chini- 
quy, who was fifty years in the Romish Church, and 
who has written one of the ablest books on this 
question that we have, that Jesuits are always pre- 
ferred as teachers in Roman Catholic schools. I 
noticed in one of our papers in this city, yesterday or 
the da}^ before, a list of the professors in the Roman 
Catholic College of the Holy Cross in this city for 
the ensuing year. Every one of those gentlemen 
had after his name the letters S. J. What does that 
mean? Society of Jesus — Jesuits. In other words, 
they are all Jesuits, every man of them. And that 
paper which is just now fondling the Roman Catho- 
lic Church, and may be assumed to be accurate on 
Romanist matters — the paper that is giving us col- 
umns of Roman Catholic news, and scarcely a refer- 
ence to any other church — is responsible for the 
statement that all the teachers in this Worcester 
College are Jesuits. We learned something about 



232 Romanism and the JRepuhlic. 

the Jesuits not very long ago. Here is a little 
more. 

In the Jesuit oath (for you want to know what 
kind ofmen*are preferred for this teaching) you find 
the following words : " I do renounce and disown 
any allegiance as due to any heretical king, prince or 
state named Protestant, or obedience to any of their 
inferior magistrates or officers. I do further declare, 
that the doctrine of the Church of England, the 
Calvinists, Huguenots, and others of the name of 
Protestants, to be damnable ; and they themselves are 
damned, and to be damned, that will not forsake the 
same." (I wish they were a little freer with salva- 
tion, and not so free with damnation. It seems to 
me that they know more about that subject than I 
ever heard before.) ''I do further declare," says 
the Jesuit, who is to be the chief teacher in these 
schools, *' that I will help, assist and advise all or 
any of His Holiness' agents in any place wherever 1 
shall be, in England, Scotland or Ireland, or in any 
other territory or kingdom I shall come to ; and do 
my utmost to extirpate the heretical Protestant's 
doctrine, and to destroy all their pretended powers, 
legal or otherwise. I do further promise and declare 
that, notwithstanding I am dispensed with to assume 
any religion heretical," (that is, he may come and 
join this church and lie all through, even at God's 
altar, provided there is some Jesuit end to be attained 
by it,) *'foi' the propagating of the Mother Church's 
interests, to keep secret and private all her agents' 
councils from time to time, as they intrust me, and 



JRomanism and the Republic, 233 

not to divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writ- 
ing or circumstance whatsoever, but to execute all 
that shall be proposed," etc. (See "Romanism," 
A. P. Grover, Chicago, 1887, page IIG.) These 
are the favorite and choice teachers, the chosen 
teachers, of the Roman Catholic Church; men who 
have announced their hostility to every form of 
government, of teaching, and of religion, except the 
Church of Rome ; and men that swear absolute devo- 
tion to her in all that they do, and are privileged to 
do ; and play the hypocrite in any assemljly, and join 
any church, for the purpose of finding out its secrets ; 
and vow solemnly to act wholly in the interests of 
the Pope and the papacy. And yet the Roman 
Catholic Church prates about morality in schools, and 
thinks our teachers are not teaching morality enough, 
and fears that their youth, their tender youth, will 
be corrupted by our teachers, and wants to put them 
under the care of the Jesuits, men that are perjured, 
as is everyone w^ho has sworn allegiance to the Con- 
stitution of this country and has sworn oaths of 
papal obedience against it ; she wants these men to 
be the leading educators of America ! 

Toward w^hat are they aiming? What is their 
purpose, and what do they mean by education ? This 
is a most interesting query. I shall answer you in 
their own words, for I am very much interested to 
know from their own lips what they do mean. I 
find the following declaration of their idea of educa- 
tion, which I want you to contrast with ours. The 
Catholic World for April 1871, gives the Roman 



234 Romayiism and the Hepuhlic. 

Catholic idea of education as follows : " Education is 
the American hobby — regarded, as uneducated or 
poorly educated people usually regard it, as a sort 
of panacea for all the ills that flesh is heir to. We 
ourselves, as Catholics, are as decidedly as any 
other class of American citizens in favor of universal 
education, as thorough and extensive as possible — if 
its quality suits us. We do not indeed prize as highly 
as some of our countrymen appear to do the ability 
to read, write and cipher. Some men are horn to 
he leaders, and the rest are horn to he led. (Who is 
born to be led ; and who is born to be a leader ? is a 
fair question.) *' The best ordered and administered 
state, is that in which the few are well educated and 
lead, and the many are trained to ohedience, are wil- 
ling to he directed, content to follow , and do not aspire 
to he leaders. In extending education, and endeavor- 
ing to train all to be leaders, we have only extended 
presumption, pretension, conceit, indocility, and 
brought incapacity to the surface. We helieve that 
the peasantry, in old Catholic countries, tvjo centwnes 
ago, were hetter educated; although for the most part 
unahle to read or write, than are the great hody of 
American people to-day. ^^ Now you understand that 
this theory of education states that the few shall be 
educated and shall be leaders ; that the many shall be 
educated, whether the}^ know how to read and write 
or not, and shall be led. That is Roman Catholic 
education. Do you say that this is only my state- 
ment of it? No ; it is their own. And do you want 
it emphasized? Look at Italy, and France, and 



Hoviamsm and the Republic, 235 

Spain, and Portugal, and Austria, and Mexico, and 
South America, if you desire illustrations. AVhat is 
their idea of education ? The few to be taught and 
lead, the many to do what tyrants have made their 
subjects do through all the years of this suffering 
world's history — to grind in their prison-houses for 
the enrichment of despots. That is their theory ; 
and they want to transplant it here. I do not think 
I ever heard a statement more utterly contrary to the 
American policy concerning the rights of man than 
this. 

What is our theory of American education ? It is, 
to teach every man all he can learn. It is, that the 
boy on the tow-path shall come to be President, if he 
knows enough. It is, that the tanner-man shall lead 
the greatest armies of history in the grandest of all 
struggles for human rights. It is, that the boy from 
the shoemaker's bench in Natick shall preside over 
the Senate of the United States, which is the grand- 
est House of Lords in the world. It is Garfield, and 
Grant, and Henry Wilson. This is American educa- 
tion. What is Roman Catholic education? The few 
to lead, the many to be slaves. Now the Roman 
Catholics know this. The more intelligent among 
them know it. Their leaders know it. The beating 
hearts of many American citizens that protest, al- 
though within the Roman Catholic Church, against 
this type of education, affirm it. And what does the 
Freeman's Journal say? Fortunately, I have just a 
little extract from that. The New York Freeman's 
Journal and Roman Cditholic Register, for March 12, 



236 Romanism and the Republic, 

1881, describing parochial education, says: **A 
smattering of the catechism (in parochial schools) 
is supplied to fit them for the duties of life ;" and inti- 
mates that these schools and their policies, then, are 
only "apologies, compromises, systemless pretenses" 
for education. That is what the Freeman^ s Journal 
thinks of parochial schools. Dr. O. A. Brownson, 
Tfho was a great authority in the Roman Catholic 
Church for twenty years, and whose Review ^'Si^ pub- 
lished in New York, and republished in London dur- 
ing that time, — Dr. A. O. Brownson tells what he 
thinks, from inside the Roman Catholic Church, con- 
cerning Roman Catholic education. In the number 
for January, 1862, Brownson' s Review thus spoke 
of the quality of Roman Catholic schools and colleges. 
(Now remember that Brownson had more power as a 
Roman Catholic writer in this country than any other 
man, so far as power of statement and power of defi- 
nition could give it.) He says : " These schools prac- 
tically fail to recognize human progress. As far as 
we are able to trace the effect of the most approved 
Catholic education of to-day, whether at home or 
abroad, it tends to repress, rather than quicken the 
life of the pupil ; to unfit, rather than prepare him for 
the active and zealous discharo^e either of his relisj- 
ious or social duties. They who are educated in our 
schools seem misplaced and mistimed in the world ; 
as if born and educated for a world that has ceased to 
exist. Comparatively few of them [Catholic gradu- 
ates] take their stand as scholars, or as men on a level 
with the Catholics of non-Catholic colleges ; and those 



Romanism and the Republic, 237 

who do take that stand, do it by throwing aside near- 
ly all they learned at their own colleges, and adopt- 
ing the ideas and principles, the modes of thought 
and action, they find in the general civilization of the 
country in which we live. The cause of the failure 
of what we call Catholic education is, in our judg- 
ment, in the fact that we do not educate for the pres- 
ent or the future, but for the past. We do not mean 
that the dogmas are not scrupulously taught in all 
our schools and colleges ; nor that the words of the 
catechism are not duly insisted upon. We concede 
this. There can be no question that what passes for 
Catholic education in this or any other country, has 
its ideal of perfection in the past, and that it resists 
as un-Catholic, irreligious and opposed to God, the 
tendencies of modern civilization." (Go on, Mr. 
Brownson. I wish you were here to say this as you 
could say it. But I suppose he is in purgatory !) 
"The work it gives its subjects, or prepares them to 
perform, is not the work of carrying it forward, but 
that of resisting it, driving it back, anathematizing it, 
as at war with the Gospel ; and either of neglecting 
it altogether, or taking refuge in the cloister, in an 
exclusive or exaggerated asceticism, always border- 
ing on immorality (Hear that again ! He says, 
they are driving back progress, and either neglecting 
the Gospel, or taking refuge in the cloister, in an 
exclusive or exaggerated asceticism, always border- 
ing on im.morality) ; or of restoring a former order 
of civilization, no lono-er a livins^ order, and which 
humanity has evidently left behind, and is resolved 



238 Itomanism and the Republic* 

shall never be restored." Brownson^s Review, Jan- 
uary and April, 1862. A truthful confession ! 

You have then from Roman Catholic authorities, 
what their idea of education shall be ; and you have 
the opinion of one of their leading men as to what 
its effect is. He goes on further, and says, it is a 
foreign education, and that the Koman Catholic 
people by it are made a foreign people in the land 
where they live. Father Chiniquy says (and he had 
a Roman Catholic education in their very best 
schools in Canada) : "The purpose of Rome is to 
educate a man just enough so he will kiss the toe of 
the Pope." And further he says, speaking of the 
repression of inquiry : ' ' You are told that you must 
not question your superior in any matter, but 3deld 
implicit obedience to him, and the only liberty 
allowed is the liberty of obedience." He is well 
qualified to speak, and in no degree discredited 
because his mind and conscience were too well edu- 
cated to permit him to remain a Romish satellite. 
So much for the general idea of Roman Catholic edu- 
cation. 

Priests and monks, nuns and Jesuits for teachers ; 
a type of education that ignores the masses, while it 
makes the few leaders ; a type of education that 
gives a smattering of the the catechism ; a system of 
the past, and not for the future ; a method that pros- 
;trates the intellect, instead of lifting it up ; a t3^pe 
of education that makes the peasants of two hundred 
years ago more an ideal community than the people 
of this enlightened commonwealth, who have had the 



Homanism and the Hepublic, 239 

education which America has given throughout all its 
history ! 

But now what do they demand shall be taught in 
our public schools? for I must hasten in order to 
brinof this to vour attention. 

First of all, they demand that Romanism shall be 
taught; and I will read this demand from the opinion 
of the Bishops of the Netherlands, who speak for all 
the Bishops, found on the seventy-second page of the 
'* Judges of Faith " : *' It is further necessary that 
the schools teach the children and make them practice 
the Catholic religion." The worship of the Virgin 
must be taught ; that is stated on the 132d page in this 
book. Papal infallibility must be taught : that is 
exactly, in so many words, what the Roman Catholics 
of Germany said after the Vatican Council, and what 
the government refused to have done ; and after 1870 
laws of Germany were made, in order that the Papal 
infallibility should not be established, and the author- 
ity of the emperor overthrown. They profess the 
right to teach the most unqualified sectarianism. 
Some of the text-books that they have already used 
in this country, in schools where they have the power, 
are sectarian to the very last degree. 

You recollect that they call our schools '' godless 
schools." Godless schools ! Then I suppose they 
would call their schools godly schools. Would you 
like to hear what they teach iQ these ' ' godly " 
schools ? Let me take time to tell you. Fortun- 
ately, a text-book is occasionally issued which dis- 
closes the spirit of their teaching without disguise. 



240 Homanism and the Republic. 

There is a volume, one of a series, entitled, '* Familiar 
Explanation of Christian Doctrine, adapted for the 
family and more advanced students in Catholic 
schools and colleges," published in 1875, by Kreuzer 
Brothers, Baltimore, and sanctioned by Archbishop 
Bayley. Lesson XII. is called, " No salvation out- 
side of the Roman Catholic Church." The questions 
and answers run thus (this is what they want to 
use instead of Swinton's History) : " Q. Since the 
Roman Catholic Church alone is the true Church of 
Jesus Christ, can any one who dies outside of the 
Church be saved? A. He can not. Q. Did Jesus 
Christ himself assure us most solemnly, and in plain 
words, that no one can be saved out of the Roman 
Catholic Church ? A. He did ; when he said to 
his Apostles, * Go and teach all nations,' etc." (I 
confess, I don't see the connection.) " Q. What do 
the Fathers of the Church say about the salvation of 
those who die out of the Roman Catholic Church? 
A. They all, without any exception, pronounce them 
infallibly lost forever." A little farther on may be 
found the following: " Q. Are there any other 
reasons to show that heretics, or Protestants, who die 
out of the Roman Catholic Church are not saved ; 
A. There are several. They cannot be saved 
because, (1) They have no divine faith; (2) They 
make a liar of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Ghost, and 
of the Apostles; (3) They have no faith in Christ. 

(4) They fell away from the true Church of Christ. 

(5) They are too proud to submit to the Pope, the 
vicar of Christ. (6) They cannot perform any 



Romanism and the Republic. 241 

good works whereby they can obtain heaven. (7) 
They do not receive the body and blood of Christ. 
(8) They die in their sins. (9) They ridicule and 
blaspheme the mother of God and his saints. (10) 
They slander the spouse of Jesus Christ, the Cath- 
olic Church." Again, page 97: " Q. Now do 
you think that God, the Father, will admit into 
heaven those who thus make liars of his son, Jesus 
Christ, of the Holy Ghost, and the Apostles? A. 
No ; he will let them have their portion with Lucifer 
in hell, who first rebelled against Christ, and who is 
the father of liars. Q. Have Protestants any faith 
in Christ? A. They never had. Q. AYhy not? 
A. Because there never lived such a Christ as they 
imagine and believe in. Q. In what kind of a 
Christ do they believe ? A. In such a one of whom 
they can make a liar, etc., etc. Q. Will such a 
faith in such a Christ save Protestants? A. No 
sensible man will assert such an absurdity. Q. 
What will Christ say to them on the day of Judg- 
ment? A. I know you not, because you never knew 
me." Again, page 104 : " Q. Are Protestants willing 
to confess their sins to a Catholic Bishop, or priest, 
who alone has power from Christ to forgive sins ?" 
(I could answer that myself, without looking on the 
book), "^ Whose sins you shall forgive, they are for- 
given them.' A. No; for they generally have an 
utter aversion to confession, and therefore their sins 
will not be forgiven throughout all eternity. Q. 
What follows from this? A. That they will die in 
their sins, and are damned." These are the lessons 



242 Romanism and the Republic. 

instilled by Eomish teachers in the minds of Ameri- 
can youth. A child goes to one of the Roman Cath- 
olic schools, and soon learns of parents, brothers and 
sisters, that the Christ in whom they believe is no 
true Christ, and that they will all die in their sins 
and .be damned, and not Romanists. This is not the 
teaching of an obscure priest, but of Archbishop 
Bayley. 

Would you rather have a godly school or a godless 
school, according to their definition? I confess 
that I begin to see why they think and talk so much 
about being damned. It is because people who tell 
lies like those above quoted deserve to be. Here is 
a text-book teaching hatred, hatred of all other 
religions exce[)t that of Rome. Says Rev. Louis N. 
Beaudry, a very gentle and sweet-spirited man, who 
came out of a very pious Romish family : " The first 
lesson that I learned as a Catholic child was to hate 
Protestants." Says a gentleman in this city, who is a 
convert from the Roman Catholic Church, and who is 
now a minister of the French Baptist Church : ' 'When 
I was a little boy, in Canada, at school, we were 
encouraged in dislike of our Protestant fellow-pupils, 
so that we thouo'ht it riofht to throw missiles at 
them, and abuse them ; and often they went bleeding 
from the encounter, having committed no offence 
against us, only they were Protestants." Such a 
spirit as that of the text-book above quoted will not 
assist to the improvement or elevation of education ; 
nor will teaching of that kind be likely to give us 
civilization, but rather barbarism. 



Romanism and the Hepuhlic. 243 

I read to you the other night from Fredet's History, 
and only refer to it now. This is a History that 
justifies the Inquisition ; that justifies the Popes of 
Rome in the villanies of which I read you last Sun- 
day night : that justifies the massacre of Saint 
Bartholomew, and the act of the Pope who struck a 
medal on that occasion to celebrate it. This is a His- 
tory having the date of publication 1886, which tells 
Roman Catholics, and tells us that, no matter how 
vile the Pope may be, he is still as infallible as if 
he w^ere good. And to learn this is education! 
Already, in some schools, they have images, and the 
confessional. I am told there is a school in Boston 
where they have introduced them. 

Now what is the consequence of education like 
this ? I am not theorizing. I am not telling you of 
what has not been tried. We have nations for our 
text-books, and ages for the leaves that we turn, 
when we inquire what Roman Catholic education has 
done, and will do again. Survey the world and see 
what has been produced by the Roman Catholic 
education, which they would substitute for ours in 
schools. What a revelation does history disclose of 
their policy? It has produced illiteracy, pauperism, 
degradation and crime. To learn what Roman 
Catholicism has done, I turn to the Report of the 
Minister of Instruction in Italy for the year 1864. 
I have not time to read it all ; but this distinsfuished 
man says: "Of every thousand males in the old 
provinces and Lombardy, 539 w^ere able to read, and 
461 did not know their letters. Of every thousand 



^44 Romanism and the Republic, 

females, 426 could read, 574 could not. In Naples 
and Sicily, of every thousand males, 165 were able to 
read, 835 could not. Of every thousand females, 
^2 could read, 938 could not. That is, in 
every hundred of the population in these Neapolitan 
provinces, about ten only were able to read. The 
ratio of pupils to inhabitants was, in the old provin- 
ces ^and Lombardy, one pupil for every thirteen 
inhabitants ; in the central region, one for forty-two ; 
in Naples and Sicily one for seventy-three ; while 
the number of pupils in Connecticut was one to Jive. 
Compare that with one to seventy-three and one to 
forty-two, as 3^ou have it in regions where Rome 
has its sway. Out of twenty-one million people in 
1864 in Italy, three and one-half millions could read 
and write, and the rest could not. We have the 
statement that in Spain seventy-five, and some 
authorities say eighty per cent., cannot read nor 
write. In regard to Switzerland, in the year 1842, 
a Romish priest, Franscini, of the Canton of Ticino, 
showed how much superior in every respect the 
Protestant cantons were, giving among the reasons 
the fact that Roman Catholic education prevails in 
Romish cantons, and Protestant education prevails 
elsewhere. We have also a picture of Ireland, show- 
ins: us what the condition of Ireland v/as in the ter- 
ritory where the Romish Church was dominant, and 
what it was outside of the Romish counties, reveal- 
ins: the same lessons as Switzerland. In the Protes- 
tant countries of Great Britain and Prussia, in 1869, 
where twenty can read and write, there are but thir- 



Romanism and the Republic. 245 

teen in the Roman Catholic countries of France and 
Austria. In European countries, one in every ten 
are in schools in the Protestant countries, and but 
one in one hundred and twenty-four in the Eoman 
Catholic countries. In six leading Protestant coun- 
tries in Europe, one newspaper or magazine is pub- 
lished to every 315 inhabitants, while in six Roman 
Catholic countries there is but one newspaper to 
every 2,715 people. It was estimated, in 1850, that 
at least seven-eighths of the twenty millions of peo- 
ple in Spanish America (Mexico, Cuba, Central 
America, and the north and west parts of South 
America, etc.) were unable to read. See Barnum's 
"Romanism As It Is," pp. 14-17. That is what the 
Romish system has done on a large scale. In Mexico, 
90 percent, of the people cannot read and write. 

Now I want to ask one question : If the Roman 
Catholic Church is animated by a desire to educate, 
if they really desire to spread sound learning, why, 
in the name of all that is good and kind, do they not 
leave their children in the schools of our country to 
be educated as they ought to be, and spend their 
money in Mexico, in South America, in Spaiii, in 
Italy, in teaching Roman Catholics there to read and 
write? Why do they not? The answer is plain 
enough. There is no desire for general education 
in their minds, but only the desire to advance the 
Roman Catholic Church. 

I now invite your careful attention to what is per- 
haps the most convincing fact on the effects and dan- 
gers of Romish schools. I shall show you, from plain 



246 RomaniS7n and the Republic. 

figures, that Romish education in our country brings 
forth illiteracy, pauperism and crime in a startling 
degree of increase, as compared with education in our 
public schools. We have some figures concerning 
this that I think jow can carry away with you in 
mind. Do you know that parochial schools in Bos- 
ton have, as they claim, over 60,000 Roman Catho- 
lic children ? And do you know what the efiects of 
Roman Catholic parochial education are? There 
are furnished to every 10,000 inhabitants by Roman 
Catholic schools 1,400 illiterates ; that is to say, where 
there are 10,000 people whose children go to the paro- 
chial schools, there are furnished 1,400 illiterates from 
such po})ulation ; by the public schools of 21 states 
350 illiterates, only one-quarter as many ; by the pub- 
lic schools of Massachusetts 71, while the Roman 
Catholic schools in the same proportion furnish 1,400. 
And how about paupers? Every 10,000 people 
sending their children to parochial schools furnish 
410 paupers as the result of that form of education ; 
by the public schools of 21 states, 170 paupers to 
10,000 ( compare with 410 ) ; by the public schools 
of Massachusetts 69 paupers to every 10,000, against 
410 paupers furnished by the parochial schools. Do 
we want more parochial schools at that rate ? 

And how about criminids? By the Roman Catholic 
parochial schools, to every 10,000 of the population, 
thereare furnished 160criminals ; by the public schools 
of 21 states 75, not half as many; by the public 
schools of Massachusetts there are furnished only 11 
criminals to every 10,000 inhabitants, compared with 



Romanism and the Republic, 247 

160 criminals furnished by every 10,000 who send 
their children to the parochial schools. That is, the 
parochial schools furnish about fifteen times as many 
criminals as the public schools of Massachusetts. 
There are more children now in school than there 
ever were, and still an increase of crime. In France, 
two or three years ago, were reported in 10,000 lay 
schools 5.55 crimes, 22.29 oflfences ; in 10,000 church 
schools 65.10 crimes and 90.50 offences. The whole 
world furnishes proof of the evils of parochial schools. 
What seems to be the inference ? There is a kind of 
schoolino: that is not a safeojuard aoainst crime. 
(Dexter A. Hawkins in Doc. XX. Evangel. Alliance 
p 42, and elsewhere.) 

I have one final and very important matter to state 
to you here to-night before I close this discourse. 
It is this : Where the state furnishes money to Roman 
Catholic institutions, — which is, you know, con- 
trary to the genius of our country and contrary to 
the constitution of the United States, — the increase of 
pauperism is enormous. Why ? Because the insti- 
tutions get an appropriation according to the num- 
ber of persons that they have in their orphanages, 
protectories and schools for juvenile delinquents; so 
much for each child. Just as soon as they get 
money from the state they begin to take in children 
whose parents are both living. They get the state 
appropriations, so much per capita ; then make the 
support of these children come down to the very low- 
est figure ; and pour the balance of the money 
into the treasury of the church. You want some 



248 Romanism and the Republic. 

proof of that? I will give it to you. There is plenty 
of it; I can assure you of that. The " Report on 
the Institutions for the Care of Destitute Children of 
the City of New York, " Nineteenth Annual Report 
State Board of Charities, pp. 78, 79, transmitted to 
the Legislature, Jan. 2S, 1886, shows, that in Kings 
County there were, in August, 1875, about ^/^ree 7mn- 
dred children in the Nursery, a branch of the alms- 
house. These were at that time transferred to secta- 
rian institutions, and the number of dependent chil- 
dren at once increased wonderfully. In August of 
each of the succeeding five years, the number in the 
county was as follows: 1876, 670; 1877, 784; 1878, 
1169 ; 1879, 1304 ; 1880, 1479. This is an increase 
of five hundred per cent, in sixyeai^s, dating from and 
including 1875. 

In Kings County, during the five years referred 
to, the cost to the people of the County from this 
pauperizing of children, seven hundred and twenty 
ofivliom were found to have hotli parents living, was 
reported as having risen from $40,000 to $172,000, 
at a price for each child so large that Commissioner 
Ropes said that the over-crowded asylums farmed 
out those whom they had no room for. The propor- 
tion in difierent asylums, as reported, was: Roman 
Catholic, 1,298; all Protestant denominations, 2^^-, 
Jewish, 17. Do not forget these figures. Just as 
soon as the state opens her treasury to the Roman 
Catholic Church, just so soon, by means as dexter- 
ous as they are dishonest, they pauperize their chil- 
dren and their people to aggrandize their Prelates, 



Romanism and the JRejpublic. 249 

their Bishops, their Cardinals and their Church. 
Here is the demonstration of the incomparable supe- 
riority of our system of education to theirs. Illiter- 
acy, pauperism, crime, degradation follow on the 
Roman Catholic methods. And what follows on 
ours ? Let the proud position of our country among 
the nations of the earth demonstrate. I close to-night 
by reading something as perfect in language as it is 
accurate in fact, which, though extended, I am sure 
will be interesting to the very last word. The 
following was written by Victor Hugo when the 
priests were striving to obtain control of education 
in France : 

'* Ah, we know you. We know the clerical party ; 
it is an old party. This it is which has found for 
the truth those two marvellous supporters, ignorance 
and error. This it is which forbids to science and 
genius the going beyond the Missal, and wishes to 
cloister thought in dogmas. Every step which the 
intelligence of Europe has taken has been in spite of 
it. Its history is written in the history of human pro- 
gress ; but it is written on the back of the leaf. It is 
opposed to it all. This it is which caused Prinelli to 
be scourged, for having said the stars would not fall. 
This it is which put Campanella seven times to the 
torture, for saying that the number of worlds was 
infinite, and for having caught a glimpse at the secret 
of creation. This it is which persecuted Harvey for 
having proved the circulation of the blood. In the 
name of Jesus, it shut up Galileo. In the name of 
St. Paul, it imprisoned Christopher Columbus. To 



250 Romanism and the Republic. 

discover a law of the heavens was an impiety, to find 
a world was a heresy. This it is which anathema- 
tized Pascal in the name of relio^ion ; Montaiofne in 
the name of morality ; Moliere in the name of both 
morality and religion. For a long time the human 
conscience has revolted against you, and now 
demands of you : * What is it that you wish of me ?' 
For a long time, already, you have tried to put a gag 
upon the human intellect ; you wish to be the mas- 
ters of education, and there is not a poet, not an 
author, not a thinker, not a philosopher that you 
accept. All that has been written, found, dreamed, 
deduced, inspired, imagined, invented by genius, the 
treasure of civilization, the venerable inheritance of 
generations, the common patrimony of knowledge, 
you reject. 

There is a book — a book which is for the world 
what the Koran is for Islamism ; what the Vedas are 
for India — a book which contains all human wisdom 
illuminated by all divine wisdom — a book which the 
veneration of the people calls The Book — The Bible. 
Well, your censure has reached even that — unheard 
of thing ! Popes have proscribed the Bible ! How 
astonishing to wise spirits, how overpowering to 
simple hearts, to see the finger of Rome placed upon 
the book of God ! And you claim the liberty of 
teaching. Stop ; be sincere ! let us understand the 
liberty which you claim. It is the liberty of not 
teaching. You wish us to give you the people to 
instruct. Very well. Let us see your pupils. Let 
US see those you have produced, What have you 



Romanism and the Republic . 251 

done for Italy ? What have you done for Spain ? 
For centuries you have kept in your hands, at your 
discretion, at your schools, these two great nations, 
illustrious among the illustrious. What have you 
done for them? I shall tell you. Thanks to you, 
Italy, whose name no man who thinks can any 
longer pronounce without inexpressible filial emotions 
— Italy, mother of genius and of nations, w^iich has 
spread abroad, over all the universe, all the most 
brilliant marvels of poetry and the arts, — Italy, 
which has taught mankind to read, now knows not 
how to read ! Yes, Italy is, of all the states of 
Europe, that where the smallest number know how to 
read. 

"Spain, magnificently endowed Spain, which 
received from the Komans her first civilization ; from 
the Arabs her second civilization ; from Providence, 
and in spite of you, a world, America — Spain, 
thanks to you, a yoke of stupor, which is a yoke of 
degradation and decay, — Spain has lost the secret 
power which it had from the Romans ; this genius of 
art which it had from the Arabs ; this world which it 
had from God ; and in exchange for all that you have 
made it lose, it has received from you the Inquisi- 
tion — the Inquisition which certain men of the party 
try to-day to re-establish ; which has burned on the 
funeral-pile millions of men; the Inquisition, which 
disinterred the dead to burn them as heretics ; which 
declared the children of heretics infamous and incap- 
able of any public honors, excepting only those who 
shall have denounced their fathers ; the Inquisition, 



252 Romanism and the Republic, 

which, while I speak, still holds in the Papal library 
the manuscripts of Galileo, sealed under the Papal 
signet. These are your master-pieces. This fire 
which we call Italy you have extinguished. This 
Colossus that we call Spain you have undermined — 
the one in ashes, the other in ruins. This is what 
you have done for two great nations. 

*' What do you wish to do for France ? Stop ! You 
have just come from Rome. I congratulate you ; 
you have had fine success there. You come from 
gagging the Roman people, and now you wish to 
gag the French people. I understand. This attempt 
is still more fine ; but take care, it is dangerous. 
France is a lion, and is alive." 

This closing sentence I quoted to you last Sab- 
bath. Freeman of America ! here is the exchansfe 
which Rome would make for your public schools. 
The Constitution proscribed, the Bible banished, 
history made to speak falsely under the command of 
the Pope ; multitudes of men that know not how 
to read, other multitudes made criminals for lack of 
instruction, other multitudes made paupers by the 
greed of the hierarchy. This is what Rome oflTers 
to America. O, men and brothers ! if you be men, 
before you lose what your fathers bought with their 
blood, by your ballots, by your pulpits, by your 
newspapers, by your hope for America and your 
love of mankind, I charge you think, act and strike 
for your country's intelligence, prosperity and virtue. 



Sermon II* 



THE MORALITY WHICH ROMANISM WOULB TEACH 
AMERICAN YOUTH. 

Our subject to-nigbt is the morality which Roman- 
ism would teach American youth. The subject of 
next Sunday eveninsc will be a continuation of this, 
in a somewhat different way. You will find the 
texts, first in the 19th Psalm, the 7th verse : " The 
law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." 
The second passage, Matthew 5 : 17, is a confirma- 
tion and corroboration of this by our Lord Jesus 
Christ : " Think not that I am come to destroy the 
law or the prophets ; I am not come to destroy but to 
fulfil." For the sake of condensation in preliminary 
statements, and in order to reach most directly the 
facts which bear on Romanism, I will beg you to 
excuse me for five minutes while I read the propo- 
sitions which lay the foundation of the discourse. 

The perfection of God's law for the government of 
physical nature in man, or elsewhere, is not greater 
than its perfection as relates to the rules of conduct 
which are commonly called morals. The law of 
God, which is perfect in the eye of the Psalmist, is 
not merely the law of physical creation, which needs 
no amendment, but also the law of moral conduct. 



254 Romanism and the Republic. 

which cannot be tampered with without doing great 
injury to man and to society. The system of perfect 
human conduct which is embodied in the Bible, is, 
in the Old Testament Scriptures, most concisely 
expressed in the moral law of the Ten Command- 
ments, which code has frequently been the subject of 
our careful study and of our emphatic commenda- 
tion. The law of the Ten Commandments is 
repeated in every particular in the Christian sys- 
tem as developed in the New Testament, since our 
Lord came not to destroy but to fulfil ; and He 
expressly names and sanctions severally, nearly every 
one of the Ten Commandments, giving them a 
broader, a deeper, and stronger meaning. 

Any system for human government must minister 
to and conserve morality ; else, whatever its other 
good qualities, it is deserving only of denunciation 
on the part of good men. For example : a piratical 
colony might exhibit bravery, and display remark- 
able obedience to its chief, and might be enviably 
rich, as the result of an evil conspiracy against the 
property of other men. But such a band cannot 
be commended for their good qualities, because of the 
essential immorality of their purpose and of their 
society. 

Especially, any system of religion, in order to 
substantiate a claim to divine origin, must be justi- 
fied or condemned by what it exacts and produces in 
moral conduct. A good religion cannot produce, 
teach, nor sanction a bad morality ; and I say this, in 
order that those who seek, and perhaps find, in 



Romanism and the Republic, 255 

other relio'ions than the true Christian relig-ion some 
excellence, may understand that such religion must 
be subjected to a moral test, and that if its morals 
are not consistent with the highest welfare of man, 
the religion is impeached at the outset as not being 
from God. This test is especially justified ccmcern- 
ingany system professing to call itself Christianity. 
Any religion which theoretically and practically 
debases morality, would, by that, be proven false 
and unchristian, and should not be disseminated. If a 
religion calling itself Christianity violates domestic 
sanctity, blasphemes God, encourages invasion of 
property-rights, takes human life without sanction 
of the principles of justice, it is not and cannot be 
a Biblical or Christian system of faith. Any religion 
which degrades man in this world, cannot guide him 
to the heavenly world, nor is there anything in the 
system of Christianity to suggest that, out of a bad 
morality in a present religion, a man shall be evolved 
into a pure character in the heavenly life. 

Proposing to apply this test to Romanism, in order 
to clear your minds of uncertainty, let me state two 
or three preliminary propositions : 1. The immor- 
ality of a few members of any church cannot discredit 
it, nor can such evil-doing discredit their creed, pro- 
vided it be shown that such immorality is contrary to 
their creed and theory, and in practice is discounte- 
nanced also by the church. This is a rule to apply 
widely and always. It is undoubtedly true, that 
there is no religion however good, no form of Chris- 
tianity however pure, which has so purified all its 



256 Romanism and the Republic. 

professed adherents that there shall be no h3^pocrites 
among them ; but if the creed and the system 
denounced, opposed and resisted all immorality, it 
cannot justly be held responsible for that immorality. 
Even the fall of ministers into grievous sin, does 
not discredit the system of religion which they teach, 
provided that system of religion and that church sus- 
pend their function, discipline them, and forbid 
them to exercise the calling which they have dis- 
graced. I do not infer, if some Roman Catholic 
priests, or bishops, or popes are bad, therefore the 
whole system is bad ; for such inference would 
impeach Protestantism also, and would be manifestly 
unfair and untruthful. 2. Moreover, there may be 
portions of a church's history not consistent with its 
hiojhest and best understandino^ of divine truth. A 
church may, under unfortunate conditions, have an 
incorrect idea of what is right and wrong. I do not 
think that the early Puritan church as such, can be 
held responsible, as a whole, for the persecution and 
hanging of people called witches ; but, if you choose 
to hold the entire church responsible, we are glad 
that at the present time, and for a very long period 
of time, all these barbarisms have been repudiated 
and denounced. On the other hand, the Roman 
Catholic Church, as a whole, should not perhaps be 
discredited by the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, if 
they had since and now repudiated it. But the 
impeachment we bring against the Romish Church is, 
that it has never, in the slightest degree, officially 
denounced the Inquisition, and that it sanctions, 



Romanism, and the JRepublic. 257 

defends and recommends it to-day. So Romanism 
takes and deserves as a system the whole responsi- 
bility of the Inquisition. 

The whole Ten Commandments are moral law, one 
as much as another. The first, second and third 
are principles more nearly relating to religion. 
The fourth is just as truly a principle toward God, 
while it relates also to the wants of man in the phy- 
sical and visible world, because it seeks to give him 
a day of rest. The remaining six commandments 
relate to human society : the fifth to the family, as 
also the seventh ; the sixth to the sanctity of the per- 
son and life ; the eighth to the rights of property ; 
the ninth to truth in human intercourse ; the tenth 
to the disposition of the heart in regard to selfishness. 
Some of these commands are so related to God and 
to man, that while essential to morality, they cannot 
wisely be made the subjects of statutory legislation. 

For instance, experience proves that it would not 
.be wise for us to legislate that a man should not wor- 
ship an idol, if he desired to; because that would 
trench upon the province of his conscience and relig- 
ion. Nor would it be exactly wise for us, in the case 
of every man who swears a profane oath, to shut him 
up in prison ; much as the wickedness of the act 
shows how unfit he is for human society. 

But in relation to the commandments affecting the 
integrity of the family ; as, for instance, the seventh 
commandment, " Thou shalt not commit adultery ;" in 
relation to the commandments affecting property, 
rights," Thou shalt not steal ; " the protection of the 



258 Romanism and the ItepuhUc, 

person, "Thou shalt not kill ; ^ in matters of truth and 
honesty, ''Thou shalt not bear false witness ; " in rela- 
tion to these, society could not exist unless there 
there was legislation against the violation of the law 
of God in these special particulars. The violation 
of these last commandments we call immorality ; the 
keeping of these commandments we call morality. 
In my next discourse, I shall speak of Rome in its 
relation to the higher morality, that is, the first 
four commandments ; in this, of Rome in reference 
to the common morality ; that is, morality that 
relates to the integrity of the family, the rights 
of praperty, the protection of the person, and 
to truth and honesty in the intercourse of man 
with man. What, then, is the relation of 
Romanism to the law of property? What is its rela- 
tion to the law of family? What is its relation to 
the law for the protection of human life? And what 
its relation to each of the five commandments of the 
second table of the law? 

The theory in detail of Romanism is immoral.* 
Romanism, by her accredited theologians, teaches 
the violation of several of these commandments of 
the moral law. Who are the authorized theolo- 
gians of the Roman Catholic Church? I answer, 
foremost among them is Peter Dens, who was 
born in the 17th century, and died about the 
year 1775. Peter Dens has received the sanction 
of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland as 
a body ; his works are put into the hands of the 
young priests to be studied ; the questions which he 



Romanism and the Republic, 259 

says ought to be asked in the confessional are asked 
there. He is the theological tutor of the young 
Roman Catholic priests, a standard authority. 2. 
Liguori, an Italian, who is called a " saint," and whose 
writings are similar to those of Dens, is also an 
authority. The Congregation of Rites, in 1803, after 
an examination for twenty years of Liguori's works, 
decreed, that " in all the writings of St. Alphonsus 
Liguori, there is not a single word that can justly be 
found fault with." (Montagu's " Sower and Virgin.") 
His '* Glories of Mary," in 1868, was heartily com- 
mended by Cardinal Manning. 3. J. P. Gury, 
whose Moral Theology is on sale in a Boston book- 
store, (where I myself saw it), and who has written 
theological works similar to those of Dens and Liguori, 
is also aj authority, and his work was published in 
Ratisbon, in 1874, and is a standard among Roman 
Catholics. These, and many others who might be 
quoted, who stand in the same relations to Roman 
Catholic teaching, are accredited and standard theolo- 
gians. Moreover, 1 call you to notice the remarkable 
fact in regard to every one of these books, that none 
of them can be printed in the English laoguage ; 
because the laws of this country very properly forbid 
it. I can give a very striking confirmation of that 
from a book which I hold in my hand: ''The cele- 
brated work of Peter Dens contains several numbers, 
in Vol. IV, upon this subject (the confessional), with 
which I am unwilling to soil these pages, even by 
the insertion of the Latin. Several years ago, in the 
city where I reside, a gentleman read and translated 



260 Romanism and the Republic. 

these before an audience where there were no ladies, 
and an honest young Roman Catholic layman present 
was so shocked that he caused him to be arrested and 
carried before the mayor upon a charge of public inde- 
cency." (That is the statement of E. W. Thompson, 
on page 192 of ''The Papacy and the Civil Power.") 

You will remember that, when a Roman Catholic 
finds the justification of his conduct in the writings 
of one of their theologians or fathers, he proceeds 
with good conscience to the performance of acts 
which they justify. The theological works by Protes- 
tant Christianity are not authoritative in any such 
sense. All the books of the Roman Catholic Church 
are issued by the authority of The Sacred Congrega- 
tion. The Sacred Congregation gives its assent and 
seal to these writings. Every man, therefore, 
writino^ under the assent of The Sacred Cono^rescation 
of the Index, stands as sanctioned by Rome, and Rome 
stands as sponsor for him. 

Now, concerning all the above authorities. Dens, 
Liguori, Gury and others, I say, they sanction lying, 
deceit, perjury, the breaking of faith, theft, murder, 
and so present and excuse adultery as to make it 
common even among their ecclesiastics. The first 
of these propositions, which I shall demonstrate from 
their own words, is this : 1. That theologians of Rome, 
and therefore the Roman Catholic Church, sanction 
lying, deceit and perjury. Liguori, whom I have 
already named, says ( I have before me the Latin 
text, and its translation also, in Chiniquy's "Fifty 
Years in the Church of Rome," chap, xiii) : " A culprit 



Romanism and the Republic. 261 

or a witness questioned by a judge, but in an illegal 
manner" (of which I suppose the culprit is to be the 
judge) "may swear that he knows nothing of the 
crime about which he is questioned, although he 
knows it well, meaning mentally, that he knows noth- 
ing in such a manner as to answer." When the crime 
is very secret and unknown to all, Liguori says, the 
culprit or the witness must deny it under oath. Here 
are his own words : ' ' He may swear that he knows 
nothing, when he knows that the person who commit- 
ted the crime committed it without malice ; or again, 
if he knows the crime, but secretly, and there has 
been no scandal. When a crime is well concealed, 
the witness, and even the criminal, may, and even 
must, swear that the crime has never been committed. 
The guilty party may yet do likewise, when a half 
proof cannot be brought against him." Liguori asks 
himself: " If one accused, legally interrogated by a 
judge, may deny his crime under oath, when the 
confession of the crime might cause his condem- 
nation, and be disadvantageous to him?" and he 
answers: " It is altogether probable that when the 
accused fears a sentence of death, or of being sent to 
prison, or exiled, he may deny his crime under oath, 
understanding that he has not committed this crime 
in such a manner as to be obliged to confess it." *'He 
who has sworn to keep a secret is not obliged to keep 
his oath, if any consequential injury to him or to 
others is thereby caused. If anyone has sworn 
before a judge to keep the truth, he is not obliged to 
say secret things." Liguori asks whether a woman, 



262 Hotnanism and the Hejpuhlic, 

accused of the crime of adultery, which she has really 
committed, may deny it under oath? He answers : 
*' Yes : provided she has been to confess, and received 
the absolution ; for then," he says, *' the sin has been 
pardoned, and has really ceased to exist." Liguori 
maintains that anyone may commit a minor crime in 
order to avoid a greater crime. He says: *'It is 
right to advise any one to commit a robbery or a 
fornication, in order to avoid a murder." 

These are but samples, and the authority which 
adduces these, being perfectly familiar with the 
theology and morality of the Church of Rome, says : 
" I could fill volumes with similar statements." But 
this is not all. 

A Roman Catholic, according to this authority, 
may perjure himself to conceal his faith. And here 
again : '' We may be allowed to conceal the truth, or 
disguise it under ambiguous or equivocal words or 
signs, for a just cause, and when there is no neces- 
sity to confess the truth. If by that means one can 
rid himself of dangerous pursuits, he is permitted to 
use it. When you are not questioned as to your 
faith, you are not only allowed to conceal it, but it 
is often more to the glory of God and the interest of 
your neighbor. If, for example, you are among a 
heretical people, you can do more good by conceal- 
ing your faith : or if, by declaring it, you are to 
cause great trouble, or death, it is temerity to 
expose one's life." The Pope has the right to release 
from all oaths. " As for an oath, made for a good 
and legitimate object, it seems that there should be 



Romanism and the Rejpublic. 263 

no power capable of annulling it. However, when 
it is for the good of the public, a matter which comes 
under the immediate jurisdiction of the Pope, who 
has the supreme power over the Church, the Pope 
has full power to release from that oath." Dens 
says (in *' Papacy and Civil Power," note to p. 560 — 
I read you this verbatim, because I want you to 
know that the citations are exactly correct) : "It 
has undoubtedly become the settled law of the 
Roman Church that the Pope may dispense with any 
promissory oath, by withdrawing the promise or pro- 
hibiting its performance." The doctrine is thus 
laid down by an author greatly distinguished in the 
Church for his learning. In answering the objection 
that the obligation of an oath is of natural and divine 
right, and therefore that it cannot cease to be binding 
through dispensation, commutation or veto, he says; 
*' The consequence is denied ; because through dis- 
pensation, etc., it is brought about, that that which 
was included under the oath, by withdrawing, pro- 
hibiting, etc., is not included under the oath, and so 
there is nothing done contrary to the oath." 

Further, the Lateran Council — and the Lateran 
Council was, like the Pope, infallible, — has said: 
*' They are not to be called oaths, but rather perjury, 
which are in opposition to the welfare of the Church 
and the enactment of the Holy Fathers." Pope 
Innocent XI. sanctions perjury in the following 
words: "If any, either alone or before others, 
whether asked or of his own accord, or for the pur- 
pose of sport or for any other object, swears that he 



264 Romanism and the Republic, 

has not done something which in reality he has done, 
by understanding within himself something else 
which he has not done, or a different way from that 
in which he has done it, or any other truth that is 
added, he does not really lie, nor is he perjured." 
That these rules are part of the Jesuit system of 
'* mental reservation '* is undoubted. Sanchez, one 
the fathers, sa^^s : " A man may swear that he never 
did such a thing (though he actually did it) , mean- 
ing within himself that he did not do so on a certain 
day, or before he was born, or understanding any 
other such circumstances, while the words which he 
employs have no such sense as would discover his 
meaning." The reason given by him, and Filiutius, 
another father, is, that " it is the intention that deter- 
mines the quality of the action." "After saying 
aloud, ' I swear that I have not done that,' to add, in a 
low voice, ' to-day ' ; or after saying aloud, ' I swear,' 
to interpose in a whisper, * that Isay,^ and then to con- 
tinue aloud, 'that I have done that."' In this, the 
same : '' No more is required of them to avoid lying 
than simply to say that they have not done what they 
have done ; provided they have in general the inten- 
tion of giving to their language the sense which an 
able man would give to it." And Escobar, another 
and greater of the Jesuit fathers, lays down the 
following demoralizing rule: "Promises are not 
binding, when the person in making them had no 
intention to bind himself." (" Papacy and Civil 
Power," page 607.) 

Do you wonder that Roman Catholics perjure 



Romanism and the Republic. 265 

themselves in our courts? Do you wonder that 
Roman Catholic saloon-keepers, who constitute nine- 
tenths of all the saloon-keepers, will swear directly 
contrary to fact in the courts ? That is the theology 
of their Fathers, of their Councils, of their Bishops 
and their Priests ; and pray tell me, why it should not 
be the practice of the laity also? Do you wonder 
that they deny history ? Do you wonder that now, 
on one hand, we have Bishops affirming their purpose 
to destroy our public schools ; and on the other hand, 
Bishops affirming that they purpose no such thing ? 
Do you wonder that Roman Catholics cannot endure 
the truth of history, and that they falsify everything 
which goes against their infallible Church ? Do you 
wonder that the Pope and the Emperor broke faith 
with John Huss, who had come to the Council of 
Constance under promise of ''safe conduct," and 
burned him to death ? Do wonder that the Councils 
of the Roman Catholic Church have accused Popes 
of perjury, and substantiated by proof their accusa- 
tion ? When I say to you that the Roman Catholic 
Church in theory favors falsehood ; that its doctors, 
lawyers and chief theologians favor falsehood, lying, 
deceit and perjury; I only ask you, if you can, to 
believe what they themselves say ; for Heaven knows 
they might have been lying when they said this. 

For instance, to take the matter of indulgences. 
William Hogan, who was for many years a priest of 
the Roman Catholic Church, says, on the 17 2d page 
of his book, which he wrote after he became a dis- 
tinguished lawyer in the southern United States ; "I 



266 Romanism and the Republic, 

pronounce all Roman Catholic Priests, Bishops, 

Popes, monks, friars and nuns to be the most delib- 
erate and wilful set of liars that ever infested this or 
any other country, or disgraced the name of religion." 
So says a man who was a priest, who lived with 
them and knew them, and who abandoned them, and 
gave us the result of his observations. '*I have 
asserted, and continue to assert, that there is not a 
Roman Catholic church, chapel or house of worship 
in any Catholic country where indulgences are not 
sold. I will go even farther, and say, that there is 
not a Roman Catholic priest or inquisitor who has 
denied the fact, that does not sell indulgences him- 
self. And yet these Priests and these Bishops, — these 
men of sin, falsehood, impiety, barbarity and immor- 
ality, — talk of morals and preach morals ; while in 
their lives and their practice they laugh at such 
ideas as morality. 

<* I would ask all or any of them, if they have ever 
heard mass in any Catholic Church in Dublin, or any 
other city in Ireland, without hearing published 
from the altar a notice, in the following words. 
' Take notice, that there will be an Indulgence on 

day, in church. Confession will be heard 

on day. Prepare, those who wish to partake 

of the Indulgence.' I have published hundreds 
of such notices myself; and any American who may 
visit Ireland, or any other Catholic country, and has 
the curiosity, may enter the Roman Catholic chapel 
aud hear these notices read ; and when he returns to 
the United States he will hear the Roman Catholic 



Romanism and the Rejpuhlic, 267 

priest say that there are no indulgences sold by the 
Romish Church. Beware, Americans! How long 
will you be the dupes of popish priests ? " (Hogan's 
*' Popery," p. 172.) And yet the twelve Protestant 
members of the school board of Boston, because of 
the mild statement in Swinton's History, were either 
so ignorant of the modes and wiles of Rome, or else 
were so culpably negligent, that they voted at Rome's 
bidding that the History should be taken out of the 
schools, because it stated mildly what every man 
knows to be true who knows anything about Rome. 

But the indictment goes much farther. Only the 
lapse of time, which lapses so rapidly, prevents me 
from citing J. P. Gury, whom I have already spoken 
of as a standard theologian of the Roman Catholic 
Church; who in detail, on the same points, one after 
another, lays down rules of conduct precisely as 
damaging and as immoral as those that I have already 
mentioned.* There is no misunderstanding them ; 
they directly inculcate lying, perjury, deceit and 
falsehood as a part of the practical morality of the 
Roman Catholic Church. Do not understand me 
as saying that every Roman Catholic is a liar. Not 
by any means ! I do not believe it ! I do say that 
every Roman Catholic maj^^ perjure himself and not 
come under the censure of his Church because in so 
doing he follows the rules of moralists, so-called, to 
whom the Church has given her sanction. No other 
rational inference can be drawn from their doctrines 
or practices. 

I stated to you that stealing is encouraged ; and 
I quote again from Liguori, the distinguished 



268 Romanism and the Republic. 

authority of the Koman Catholic Church. Let me 
read to you exactly what he says, as follows : 
*' A servant has the right to rob his master, a child 
his father, and a poor man the rich." The Salmantes 
say that a servant may, according to his own judg- 
ment, pay himself with his own hands, more than 
was agreed upon as a salary for his own work, if he 
finds that he deserves a larger salary ; '< and," says 
Liguori, '*this doctrine appears just to me." **The 
poor man who has concealed the goods and effects of 
which he is in need, may swear that he has nothing." 
(Lying and stealing both.) "In like manner an 
heir, who, without taking an inventory, conceals his 
goods, when it is not the goods mortgaged for a debt, 
may swear that he has concealed nothing, under- 
standing the goods with which he was to pay." There 
are many opinions about the amount which may be 
stolen to constitute a mortal sin. " Nevar has said, 
too scrupulously, that to steal a half piece of gold is 
a mortal sin : while others, too lax, hold that to steal 
less than ten pieces of gold cannot be a serious sin. 
But Tol, Mech, Less, etc., have more wisely ruled, 
that to steal two pieces of gold constitutes a mortal 
sin." Is it a crime to steal a small piece of a relic? 
(Liguori now) ; '* There is no doubt of its being a sin 
in the district of Rome ; since Clement YII. and 
Paul Y. have excommunicated those who have com- 
mitted such thefts. 

** But this theft is not a serious thing when com- 
mitted outside the district of Rome ; unless it be a 
very rare and precious relic ; as the wood of the 



Romanism and the Republic, 269 

Holy Cross, or some of the hair of the Virgin Mary." 
Once more : '* If any one steals small sums at differ- 
ent times, either from the same or from different 
persons, not having the intention of stealing large 
sums, nor of causing a great damage, his sin is not 
mortal; particularly if the thief is poor, and he has 
the intention to give back what he has stolen. If 
several persons steal from the same master, in small 
quantities, each in such a manner as not to commit 
a mortal sin, though each one knows that all these 
little thefts toojether cause a considerable damao^e to 
their master, yet no one of them commits a mortal 
sin, even when they steal at the same time." (Still, 
if there are enough of them, they could take about 
all a man has, according to that. There is more of 
this.) Liguori, in speaking of children who steal 
from their parents, says: "Silas, cited by Croix, 
maintains that a son does not commit a mortal sin 
when he steals only twenty or thirty pieces of gold 
from a father who has an income of 150 pieces of 
gold," — you must regulate it according to what your 
father has, — " and Lugo approves of that doctrine. 
Less, and other theologians say, that it is not a mortal 
sin for a child to steal two or three pieces of gold 
from a rich father." I wonder if they teach that in 
their Sunday schools? " Bannez maintains, that to 
commit a mortal sin a child must steal not less than 
fifty piece of gold from a rich father ; but Lacroix 
rejects that doctrine, except the father is a prince." 
(Chiniquy "Fifty Years," chapter xiii). Great 
advantage in having a prince for a father ; you can 
steal all you have a mind to I 



270 Homanism and the Republic. 

Now, when your Koman Catholic servant-girl takes 
out of your house sundry articles of food or clothing, 
for needy persons that are related to her, as cousins 
of one degree or another, you see that she is acting 
in harmony with the definitions and directions of the 
sanctioned theologians and saints of Rome. More- 
over, the despoiling of heretics has been, in theory 
and in practice, the rule of that church. Always. 
Now, you understand me. I do not say that every 
Roman Catholic is dishonest : far from it. I do 
not say that every priest teaches this outrageous and 
thievish doctrine. But I do say, that the theologians 
of Rome, who have the sanction of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church herself, and who teach by that sanction 
infallible doctrine, do countenance and encourage 
and excuse theft and stealing. You may judge of 
the consequences of such teaching. 

They also sanction and authorize murder, the 
murder of heretics. For example, let me* quote you 
their exact language ; for what they say is so much 
worse than anything that I could say if I tried to 
quote its substance, that I like to read it exactly as 
they state it. Dens says, in his *'Theologica Moralis :" 
*' A man who has been excommunicated by the Pope 
may be killed anywhere, as Escobar and Deaux teach ; 
because the Pope has an indirect jurisdiction over 
the whole world, even in temporal things, as all the 
Catholics maintain, and as Suarez proves against the 
King of England." An excommunicated man may 
be killed anywhere ; and we are all excommunicated, 
you understand. Only last week, I read you the 
Papal bull excommunicating all heretics. 



Romanism and the Republic, 271 

Lord Acton, one of the Roman Catholic peers of 
England, reproachhig the bloody and anti-social laws 
of his own church, wrote : *'Pope Gregory YII. 
decided it was no murder to kill excommunicated 
persons." This is taken from the London Times, 
July 26, 1872, written by Lord Acton. Gregory 
says : " This rule was incorporated in the canon law. 
During the revision of the code, which took place in 
the sixteenth century, and which produced a whole 
volume of corrections, the passage was allowed to 
stand. It appears in every reprint ot the Corpus 
Juris. It has been for 700 years, and continues to 
be, part of the ecclesiastical law. Far from being a 
dead letter, it obtained a new application in the days 
of the Inquisition; and one of the later Popes has 
declared, that the murder of a Protestant is so good a 
deed that it atones, and more than atones, for the 
murder of a Catholic." That is to say, according to 
this infallible Pope, if a man has murdered a Roman 
Catholic, he may expiate the deed by murdering an 
excommunicated person ; and all Protestants are 
excommunicated. This is their own language. 

In the last Council of the Vatican, has the Church 
of Rome expressed any regret for having promul- 
gated and executed such bloody laws ? No ! On 
the contrary, she has anathematized all those who 
think or say that she was wrong when she deluged 
the w^orld with the blood of the millions she ordered 
to be slaughtered to quench her thirst for blood ; 
she positively said that she had a right to punish 
those heretics by torture and death. Further than 



272 Romanism and the JRepubUc. 

that : They claim the right to murder all rulers 
whom they consider apostates ; and has it ever been 
brought to your attention (I speak of it as a curios- 
ity only) , that every person who had anything to do 
with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln was a 
Roman Catholic ? — that John Wilkes Booth was a 
Roman Catholic ; Payne and Atseroth, also Dr. 
Nudd, who dressed his leg ; Garrett, in whose 
premises he was killed ; also, that Harold was a 
Roman Catholic ; Mrs. Suratt and her son were 
Roman Catholics ; their house was the head-quarters 
for Roman Catholics and for the Jesuit priests. All 
this was brought out before the military tribunal 
which condemned some of them to death. As early 
as 1861, certain political partisan papers of this coun- 
try were filled with statements that Abraham Lincoln 
was an apostate, who had been born in the Roman 
Catholic Church and left it. This was false ; but 
was evidently intended to arouse fanatical hate 
against Lincoln as an apostate. I do not say that 
Rome planned that murder ; but remember, that when 
John Suratt fled from Washington he was taken 
charge of by Jesuits, and under a Jesuit convoy was 
carried to France. If they murdered Abraham 
Lincoln, they acted in harmony with the authority of 
their theologians. 

Repentant heretics, we are told by this same 
standard of morality, cannot have their lives spared, 
although they have repented. Let me give you the 
words: "Though the heretics who repent must 
always be accepted to penance, as often as they have 



Homanism and the HepuhUc. 273 

fallen, they must not in consequence of that always 
be permitted to enjoy the benefits of this life. When 
they fall again they are admitted to repent ; but the 
sentence of death must not be removed." That is 
what they practised in the Inquisition. When here- 
tics recanted Protestant doctrine, they were, in 
repeated instances, slain, by the orders of the Inquis- 
itors. The Lateran Council has given us a declara- 
tion in favor of the extermination of heretics in lan- 
guage like this: " Catholics who shall assume the 
cross for the extermination o/" heretics, shall enjoy the 
same indulgences and be protected by the same 
privileges as are granted to those who go to the help 
of the Holy Land. We decree, further, that all who 
may have dealings with heretics, and especially such 
as receive, defend or encourage them, shall be 
excommunicated. He shall not be eligible to any 
public office. He shall not be admitted as a witness. 
He shall neither have the power to bequeath his pro- 
perty by will, nor to succeed to any inheritance." 

The Roman Catholic Church, as we have shown, 
has been a bloody church. The Inquisition, whose 
history we have in the language of Llorente, him- 
self secretary of the Inquisition, — the Inquisition . 
has been recommended, and I have read the recom- 
mendation in your hearing, by Segur, whose books 
are on sale in Boston ; by LaMaistre, whose books 
have been on sale in Boston ; by Fredet, whose his- 
tory bears the mark 1886, published in Baltimore by 
John Murphy. 

This Church is a church that is red with the blood 



274 Homanism and the Rejpublic. 

of the saints ; and as 1 have said to you here before, 
if one day the priests and bishops of Rome should 
say to you, We are your brothers, and will do nothing 
to your injury ; and the next day they should strike 
you dead ; they Avill do exactly what the Romish 
Church, and Charles IX., and Catherine de Medici, 
his mother, did to Admiral Coligny, and to seventy 
thousand Protestants, at the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew. They may profess the utmost friend- 
ship ; but they violate neither their theology nor 
their principles when they take the lives of heretics. 
It may be that it has not come to your attention 
that Roman Catholics are forming and drilling mili- 
tary companies here in America, composed entirely 
of their own adherents. I do not know what they 
mean by it, and I do not care. There are other men 
who can handle a gun in America, when necessary, to 
resist treason and tyranny. I touch now upon deli- 
cate ground, and shall be very brief, for I reserve a 
considerable part of this to another discourse, when 
I shall not have a mixed audience present. 

The crime of adultery has the sanction of the 
Roman Catholic Church, in this wise. Now listen 
closely. They deny all civil and Christian marriage 
to be true and lawful marriage when not performed 
within the Roman Catholic Church, and Pope Pius 
IX. calls it '' filthy concubinage.^' They have divided 
between a husband and wife in England — I quote 
from Mr. Gladstone in his preface to '* Vaticanism " — 
because they were not married by a Romish priest , 
this man havini2f embraced the Romish faith for the 



Momanis'ni and the Republic. 275 

sake of orettino^ rid of a noble and excellent wife. 
Mr. Gladstone calls attention to the fact, and wonders 
that the menace to human society contained in the 
act had not been taken more account of in England. 
The history of a celibate priesthood, which fills this 
remarkable volume now in my hand, " History of 
Sacerdotal Celibacy," by H. C. Lea, is written by one 
of the most judicially minded historians that ever wrote 
history. The work of six hundred and fifty pages 
is full of facts, stated in the most judicial and impar- 
tial manner, by a man who has no case to make out, 
but has simply gone to the fountain-heads of infor- 
mation and learned what the state of that celibate 
clergy has been ever since it originated. And 
though the book is most elevated in style and exalted 
in motive ; though it is not in any sense obscene ; 
though it might be read by any man, woman or 
child without a blush ; there is more recorded vileness 
in that book, more history and record of abomination, 
than I have ever found in any book ; and the author- 
ities for its statements are almost invariably Roman 
Catholics. If the system makes necessary such a 
record, alas for the seventh commandment ; or rather, 
alas for the system of Romanism. I have to limit 
this to private discussion ; but as I pass it, I confess 
to you, my friends, that if I should tell you the tithe 
of what I have read in that book, giving names, 
dates and places, from the earliest times until now, 
you would be inclined to drive me from this house ; 
and yet, you would know that my statements were 
true. 



276 Romanism and the Repuhlic, 

I pass now from this portion of my subject, 
and call your attention to another portion that is 
equally interesting, and quite as conclusive. I have 
given you already their rules of conduct as stated in 
their theologians, and bring now a broader impeach- 
ment. As a system, Romanism leads directly to 
immorality. The framers of the system favored the 
violation of the moral law. I propose to demon- 
strate that in brief words. Amono^the doctrines and 
dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church is this, that 
the Pope maybe never so vicious, and still the infal- 
lible head of the Church as vicar of Christ, deserv- 
ing the most exalted names and titles. On the 511th 
page of Fredet's History — I quoted that last week — 
it is explicitly stated that, whatever the character 
of a Pope, whether he be a Eugenius, a Grregory, a 
Benedict y III., or an Alexander VI., or whatever 
monster of crime he may be, he is equally infallible 
in his legislation and leadership as head of the 
Church. You remember that fact was read to you 
from their standard history. Now, notice further, 
that the same rule applies to bishops and priests. 
Every Archbishop, Cardinal, Bishop, or Priest in 
the Church of Rome, according to the law of that 
church, may be a vile, immoral and criminal man, and 
still exercise all his functions. No matter what ho 
has done, it does not vitiate the sacraments which he 
performs. 

I will read it to you in the exact phraseology of the 
Roman Catholics themselves, and show you their 
position. On the 173d page of this work of R. W. 



Romanism and the Republic. 211 

Thompson, there is a quotation from the Catechism 
of the Council of Trent. (The Council of Trent is 
probably the most esteemed of all the councils of the 
Roman Catholic Church.) Listen to the language. 
Referring to such as are excluded from the pale of the 
Church, it is here said (Ibid., pp. 73-4) ; "Were 
even the Jives of her ministers debased by crime, 
they are still within her pale, and, therefore, lose 
none of the poivers with which her ministry invests 
them^ That is to say, a man may be never so bad 
a man, and may be a good Pope, giving infallible 
doctrine and law to the Church ; a good bishop, a 
good priest, confessing and absolving men, women 
and children, although, as they say, he be a vile 
man, and guilty of crime. 

Now, if a cleric may be a good pope, bishop, or 
priest, and be a bad man, why should not a layman 
he a good Catholic and still he a had man 9 For a 
layman may be made a priest to-morrow ; it is in the 
power of the church to do so. And I know the intel- 
lio^ence of Roman Catholics well enouofh to know that 
when they understand that the priest may be a good 
priest and a bad man, they have sense enough to infer 
that a Roman Catholic may be a good Catholic and a 
bad man ; and their reasoning is just as good and 
their conclusion is just as sound as that of the Coun- 
cil of Trent in reference to the priests. 1 ask you, if 
such doctrine does not naturally lead to all manner 
of immorality ? If a man may be a good Catholic and 
a bad Christian, may be a good priest and a villain, 
where is the limit that the church sets to immorality 
as excluding men from her sacraments ? 



278 Romanism and the Republic, 

Moreover, this sysitem of casuistry, by which the 
words and commandments of men are exalted, equal 
to or above the word of God, creates confusion, and 
immorality results. I cannot cite to you all the 
demonstrations of this. Here is one. Pope Sixtus 
y. brought out a translation of the Yulgate Bible 
that abounded in errors. There was neither scholar- 
ship nor sense in it. It was so scandalously bad that, 
although he pronounced an infallible anathema on all 
who did not receive it, Bellarmine, the famous Jesuit 
undertook to set it right, and when Bellarmine under- 
took to set it right by the help of another Pope, he 
went on to say that it had not been published, that 
Pope Sixtus had not intended to make it public, and 
that those slight recensions were a part of the inten- 
tion of Sixtus Y. — every statement of which was a 
downright falsehood, as proven by facts. (Barnum, p. 
171.) When they have thus deceived concerning 
the Sacred Scriptures (for a Pope can lie easily, and 
by the casuistry of the Church be excused) , do you 
not see how they confound all moral definitions? 

The Church makes a mortal sin of very little things, 
and at the same time sanctions great enormities, the 
result of which is to produce the utmost confusion in 
the minds of her people. For illustration of that, on 
page 519 of this book, Dr. Barnum gives the fol- 
lowing quotation about mortal sins (I will first read 
to you from page 518 from the Catechism sanctioned 
by the most reverend Dr. Hughes, Archbishop of 
New York, that you may know what is a mortal sin) : 
*' Q. What is a mortal sin? A. A mortal sin is 



Romanism and the Republic. 279 

that which kills the soul and deserves hell. Q. How 
does mortal sin kill the soul ? A. Mortal sin kills 
the soul by destroying the life of the soul, which is 
the grace of God." Passing from this, I want to 
tell you what the Et. Rev. Armand Francis Mary 
de Charbonnel, who was the Bishop of Toronto in 
Canada, declared were mortal sins. He says : 
"Catholic electors in this country who do not use 
their electoral power in behalf of separate schools, 
are guilty of mortal sin. Likewise parents not 
making the sacrifices necessary to secure such schools, 
or sending their children to mixed schools. More- 
over, the Confessor who would give absolution to 
such parents, electors, or legislators as support mixed 
schools, to the prejudice of separate schools, would be 
guilty of a mortal sin." * ' It is a gross and very com- 
mon error to believe that to drink in violation of 
one's pledge is a sin in itself. To drink beyond 
measure, is a mortal or venial sin of intemperance, 
according to the degree of drunkenness; but to 
drink with moderation, though in violation of one's 
pledge, is not a sin, unless the pledge has been taken 
with an obligatory intention, or by way of vow or 
oath ; which should never be done without a spirit- 
ual father's advice." 

There you have as a sample the confusion that they 
create. They say a man will go to hell if he does 
not vote against mixed schools ; that a parent will go 
to hell if he permits his children to go to them. They 
say that a priest will go to hell who absolves the 
people who do these things ; and turn right round and 



280 Romanism and the Rejpuhlic. 

say that when a man has vowed that he will not 
drink, he commits no sin in breaking his oath, although 
he commits a sin if he gets too drunk. By means of 
such confusion all moral definitions are confounded, 
and the confounding of those definitions inevitably 
leads to immorality. While in this way monstrous 
evils and sins are made almost virtues, what can you 
expect in the field of morality ? 

They teach as doctrines that some very just acts 
are exceedingly wicked ; for instance, that it is a 
sacrilege for any man to strike a priest ; and yet if 
some ofthe outraged husbands and sons should follow 
the dictates of their natural indignation, there would 
be a ojreat deal of that kind of sacrileo^e committed. 
Many a priest would get a blow from the hand of 
outraged virtue, that now, by reason of his arrogance 
and assumed power, he escapes. 

Moreover, they declare that the marriage of priests 
is incest, and what can be a viler crime ? And yet the 
Church has licensed and collected taxes, not once but 
many times, of priests who keep in their houses not 
wives but other women, by permission and sanction 
of ecclesiastical authority, provided they paid the tax 
to the Church. Out of similar sin the Church has 
gained great revenue. How all moral definitions 
are thus confounded, and how inevitably immorality 
follows ! 

Father Chiniquy says, they teach that the duty of 
obedience lays the entire responsibility of the act, 
whatever that act may be, upon the Superior, and not 
on the person who has done the deed. Now I am 



Romanism and the Republic. 281 

very near the close, although I have not finished all 
that I have to say on this topic. Permit me to read 
to you as follows, from St. Liguori once more : *'The 
principal and most efficacious means of practising 
obedience due to superiors, and of rendering it meri- 
torious before God, is to consider that, in obeying 
them, we obey God himself, and that by despising 
their commands, we despise the authority of the 
Divine Master." Notice very closely now (I am 
reading to you from Saint Liguori, in a volume 
addressed to the nuns) : " When thus a nun receives 
a precept from her prelate, superior or confessor, she 
should immediately execute it, not only to please 
them, but principally to please God, whose will is 
known by their command. If, then, you receive a 
command from one who holds the place of God, you 
should observe it as if it came from God himself. It 
may be added, that there is more certainty of doing 
the will of God by obedience to our superiors than 
by obedience to Jesus Christ," ( God forgive us for 
reading such blasphemy!) "should He appear in 
person and give His command. St. Philip used to 
say, that the nun or monk shall be most certain of not 
having to render an account of the actions performed 
through obedience \ for these, the superiors only^ who 
commands them, shall be accountable.^^ ( Chiniquy 
chap, xiii.) 

Let me comment in a word. Here is a nun and a 
monk sworn to absolute obedience ; as the priest is 
to the Bishop and the Bishop is to the Pope. To 
her the Superior gives a command ; any kind of a 



282 Romanism and the Republic, 

command. What shall the person do who receives 
that command ? Obey it as if God spoke ! Obey it 
more than if God spoke ! ! That is clearly what is 
stated. Whatever the deed which that person is 
commanded to do, and shall do, the doer has no 
moral responsibility for the deed ; but the responsi- 
bility rests solely on the person who directs her 
to perform the deed, and he will be absolved by 
another man who has done the very same thing. 
Thus the very foundations of all society are imper- 
illed ; all moral obligation is destroyed ; all proper 
definition of what is right and wrong is set aside, by 
such a theory and doctrine as this. 

But I must not weary you. I have given you as 
much as you can think of and remember ; although 
much remains to be said upon this topic, which I will 
bring forward on the next occasion. I just now 
stated that a priest may absolve from sin, whatever 
his character. 

The superstitions of the Roman Catholic Church 
aver this : that the priest, of whom I have spoken, 
in the mass, makes out of the wafer God. Then he 
falls down and worships it ; the people all about 
him fall down and worship it : and although it might 
be poisoned by chemistry , or might be eaten by rats, 
or might perish from moisture or drought, they say 
that that wafer is God, the body, soul, and divinity 
of God, and that all of God is there present. At 
once you infer that the creature who can create God 
is greater than God. The man who can manufac- 
ture Deity is greater than the Deity that he manu- 



Romanism and the Republic, 283 

factures. If the priests can make God out of wheat 
and flour bread, then they are more divine than God 
himself. But this priest who is held in such super- 
stitious veneration, of course, has power to absolve 
from sin. Why not? 

And what does he do with that power? He 
absolves his own companions in guilt ; he absolves 
his own paramours in lust ; and when it is done, those 
persons can say, under oath, that they have never 
done it ; because the sin absolved is as though it had 
not been done. Where is the chance for morality 
here? The priests have done this so often, that 
Father Chiniquy says a very great number of them 
are atheists and unbelievers, because the natural 
conscience, given by the universal difiusion of the 
spirit of God, makes it impossible for a man to believe 
such things to be right, and do them. 

I cannot speak of their alleged miracles ; you know 
how many there are. They claim to have the thorns 
that came from the brow of the bleeding Son of 
Man ; and say that these thorns bleed on certain 
occasions ! There are two cities that have the holy 
coat woven without seam, Treves in Prussia and 
Argenteuil in France, and they have often contended 
over their rights in the matter ! During the present 
century, the exposure of that alleged coat has 
brought hundreds of thousands of dollars into the 
Papal treasury. They liquefy, on certain occasions, 
in Naples, the blood of St. Januarius, and the super- 
stitious crowd supposes the Church is working a great 
miracle. The priests, the Bishops and the Pope 



284 Romanism and the Repiihlic, 

know better; but they permit it. We remember 
when the time came round in Naples once for the 
miracle to occur, the French were in possession of 
of the city, and the priests were so enraged that they 
Avould not let the blood liquefy. The crowd was 
furious and frantic, and a riot was imminent. Their 
fury was against the French troops. The blood 
would not liquefy, and some great calamity was going 
to fall upon them. Whereupon the French com- 
mander planted cannon before the church and at the 
corners of the streets, and sent word to the priests 
that, unless the blood liquefied in ten minutes, he 
should open fire. In about five minutes the miracle ( ?) 
was done, the people were satisfied, and order 
was restored ! 

Now, my friends, I close with these words. Our 
papers here, as I have ak^eady said, are not protest- 
ing, as leaders of public opinion should, against paro- 
chial schools. They are rather helping them. We 
are treated to two columns of an address by a priest at 
the laying of the corner-stone of a parochial school 
in honor of Leo. XIII. called after him, and not one 
word of warning or remonstrance against Rome's 
avowed policy. Public opinion in this city and 
throughout the country is awakening, but our papers 
have no word to say. Now when Rome teaches our 
youth what I have read you, as an essential part of 
Romanism, when Rome has taught that and made the 
people receive it, she will make of us what she has 
made of other nations. And Rome has always taught 
and practiced such immorality. Our immoral and 



Romanism and the Republic. 285 

godless schools of which they talk, are worth more 
to-day for the purification of morals than all the 
Papacy. I would give more for the diffusion of 
American public schools throughout all Europe 
and the world, as a moral force, with the American 
spirit in them, than for all that corrupted Romanism 
is doing to-day ; and I am giving my strength 
to this work, sanctioned by your splendid support, 
which I know will not fail, that we may conserve tha 
interest of a morality as strong as Plymouth Pock, 
and may build up the colossal empire which God has 
given us to up-build, on the foundations, not of Pom- 
ish casuistry or Papal superstition, but on founda- 
tions of pure morality, sound learning, free education, 
the ten commandments, and the true religion out of 
which all these blessings spring. 



S>ermon 3£. 



SHALL ROMANISM TEACH A PAGAN MORALITY TO 
AMERICAN YOUTH? 

You will find my text to-night in the Ten Com- 
mandments, the first and second. I might also 
include the third ; for they are all germane to what I 
shall say. In the 20th chapter of the Book of Exodus 
we read: "Thou shalt have no other gods before 
me : Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 
image, or any likeness of any thing that is in 
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that 
is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow 
down thyself to them nor serve them : for I, the 
Lord, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity 
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and 
fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing 
mercy unto thousands ot them that love me, and keep 
my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name 
of the Lord thy God in vain : for the Lord will 
not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." 

As the base of a great pyramid, so are these first 
commandments of the ten to all that follow ; for all 
the Second Table, as it is called', that command man 
in his relations to his fellows, and on which we spoke 
on last Sabbath evening, are founded on those views 



Romanism and the Republic, 287 

of God and relations to God which we are taught to 
cherish. It is therefore particularly appropriate that 
the Ten Commandments should be based on God and 
true worship, inasmuch as morality must find its 
only sure foundation in religion. These command- 
ments, given in an idolatrous age, pointed directly at 
and against all Polytheism, the worship of many gods ; 
and all Paganism which forgot God ; all Atheism, 
which denied God ; and all Idolatry, which substitutes 
some other thing for the God who alone is worthy of 
worship. The Commandments so solemnly announced 
at Sinai and recorded in the book of' Exodus, are 
still further elaborated throughout all the Sacred 
Word, in which no sin is more frequently spoken of 
or more strongly denounced than the sin of idolatry. 
Through all the Old Testament Scriptures, from 
almost the first words to the last, you find the holy 
prophets and the sacred historians teaching us of 
the ruin that is wrought by idolatry; how contrary it 
is to the divine word, how sinful it is in the sight of 
God, and how hurtful to all mankind. We think our- 
selves so far away from such gross and false worship, 
that, as we turn our thoughts to paganism and idol- 
atry, we are ready to say : Where in all the world do 
these things now exist ? and can it be that there is any 
place so benighted as that men there fall down to 
worship stocks and stones? And we congratulate 
ourselves that a better faith prevails over the land 
where we live ; and that we are removed, as we 
fondly suppose, by thousands of miles, from any peo- 
ple that so violates the plain precepts of God, of 



288 Homanism and the Republic. 

reason and of morality. But let us inquire a little 
concerning paganism and idolatry, and we may be 
compelled to confess that we are not so far removed 
from it as we supposed. 

Paganism, by thoughtful and philosophical writers, 
is divided for discussion into three parts. You know 
that the word Paganism means, originally, the people 
who live outside cities ; for as the true faith of God 
came to be known first in the great centers of popu- 
lation, while the people outside of those centers still 
adhered to their ancient superstitions, it came to pass 
that those who dwelt outside were denominated 
pagans, on account of their false worship. Paganism, 
as false religion, is divided into three divisions. 

First, we speak o^ fabulous paganism, or paganism 
founded on story, and legend, and myth ; such as you 
find scattered all through the early Roman, and Greek, 
and Assyrian mythologies, and through all the nations 
of the north. Strange, weird and marvellous stories 
are made the object of the credulous faith of the 
people. The second type of paganism is spoken of 
2iS physical paganism ; that is seen among people who 
have an idea of the great Ruler of the world, and yet 
who think it impossible to approach the sovereign 
God, and so imagine a great number of inferior gods 
or demi-gods, who are characterized sometimes as 
demons and spirits, and sometimes as mighty 
men and heroes. This kind of paganism has 
also prevailed in many quarters of the world at vari- 
ous periods of history. The third type of paganism 
is known to thinkers as political paganism ; that is to 



Romanism and the Republic. 289 

say, a form or system of idol worship, with elaborate 
ceremonial liturgies and formulas, favored by the 
rulers, and used to suppress the freedom of the peo- 
ple, to attract their attention and to make them at 
rest under various forms of tyranny. You know 
that Cicero and Seneca did not believe in the gods 
of their time ; but they thought it a good thing for 
the people that they should so believe ; and so 
they cultivated all the elaborate ritual of the early 
Koman paganism, in order that the people might have 
some sort of religion satisfying to their minds, closely 
linked to the state, and under state control. 

All history illustrates these various types of pagan 
worship. And myths, mediators and ceremonials 
are strikingly suggestive of the practices of a corrupt 
and paganized Christianity. By idolatry we mean, 
that exhibition or form of paganism in which the 
object of worship is a graven image of some sort, or 
a man, or a hero, or some animal, or something else 
than the great and true God. The Egyptians were 
idolators when they worshipped a great variety of 
living creatures ; the Romans were idolators when 
they sacrificed to the emperors ; the Greeks were 
idolators when they adored the beautiful statues of 
the Parthenon ; the African and the American Indian 
are idolators when they roll up a little hair in a wad, 
called a fetich, and bow down to that as giving them 
good luck and favorable fortunes. 

In contrast with all these types of paganism, how 
sharp the distinction is when compared with true 
religion. The elements of the true Christian relig- 



290 Romanism and the Republic. 

ion seems to me to be these : first, a belief in the one 
only true God, the father and creator of all things ; 
sectmd, a belief in the general sinfulness of mankind 
in their relations to God as the result of the violation 
of Ilis law ; third, a belief in the Mediator between 
God and man, Jesus Christ, very God and very man, 
who in the fulness of time was manifested for human 
salvation ; fourth, repentance, and faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, by which men come to be partakers of 
His merit and grace ; and finally, to sum up as com- 
pactly as possible our relations to man, the spirit of 
love, of generosity and of humanity, with Christ as 
that type of manhood which we are all to seek after 
and imitate. 

When you contrast this system of true religion 
with paganism, how" marked the antagonism. For, 
instead of one God, the pagan believes in many gods ; 
instead of one mediator, he believes in a great vari- 
ety and number of mediators, who variously affect 
the supernal Power, and obtain favors for men. 
Paganism not only believes in a variety of spiritual 
mediators, but also believes in the mission of priests ; 
who, as the priests of paganism, always had an 
extraordinary power over the people, because those 
people supposed that all the favors which they could 
pos>ibly obtain from Deity must be obtained through 
the intervention of these priests. Moreover, pagan- 
ism always tends to a very elaborate and sensuous 
ceremonial ritual, with a great variety of sacrifice, 
show, form and splendor. It burns incense ; clothes 
its images in gorgeous apparel ; and supposes that 



Romanism and the Republic, 291 

from those images, on certain festivals, special favors 
can be obtained. Not only so, but paganism has 
shrines which are counted especially holy, where 
favors can be obtained for men. To these, pilgrim- 
ages are made, when thousands of people move to the 
sacred shrine, to get from it, as from the Delphic 
oracle, some enlarojement of knowledo'e concerninfi: 
divine things. Paganism, moreover, is always intol- 
erant, fiercely so. The spirit of paganism cannot 
tolerate any other gods than the gods which they 
themselves worship ; and therefore there have always 
been religious wars between pagan nations on account 
of their mutual hatred of each other's relio-ion. Not 
only is paganism fiercely intolerant and inhuman in 
its relations to mankind, but it is grossly immoral, 
and always so. There is not an idolatrous worship 
in the world, nor has there ever been one, that has 
maintained a high standard of pure morality. And 
this fact is a demonstration that the moral law is a 
unit, inasmuch as those who are violators of the first 
commandments are alwaj^s disobedient to those that 
follow. Not only is paganism grossly immoral, but 
the ideals of manhood which are entertained by pagan 
nations are invariably false. Sometimes their ideal 
man is a cruel conqueror ; sometimes he is a hidden 
ascetic ; sometimes he is a filthy fakir ; sometimes he 
is one who subjects himself to self-immolation, and 
who is able to endure torture like the American 
Indian, stoically, and without a cry of sufi*ering. 

These are some of the features that mark paganism 
and systems of idolatry. Now we suppose when we 



29^ Romanism and the Republic. 

think of Komanism that it is a form of Christianity. 

Before fully considering it, we naturally say that 
Komanism is a part of the Christian Church. We 
suppose that they accept the same God whom we 
accept ; they worship the same Saviour in whom we 
believe ; they cultivate the same morality that we 
cultivate ; they advance the kingdom of Christ which 
we seek to advance ; and they undertake to further 
the same doctrines which we profess. To a degree, 
it is true that a portion of the doctrines of the Roman 
Catholic Church are Christian doctrines ; and it is 
also true, that if we look at a few Biblical doctrines 
Romanism may justly be called a Christian Church : 
but is just as true that in Romanism error has been 
so mingled with truth that while Rome does adhere 
to some of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, 
it adheres to all the doctrines of paganism ; and while 
Rome on the one hand holds as truth not a few of 
those things that are held by Protestant Christians, 
on the other hand it exhibits and developes every 
feature that characterizes idolatrous systems and 
pagan theologies. 

Observe, if you please, that Romanism. receives as 
the word of God, equal to the Gospels, the word of 
the Pope, the canon law, the decrees of councils. Be- 
sides the true God, they worship other beings, paying 
them divine honors. They worship the Pope, the 
mass ; they have their sacred shrines ; they burn their 
incense ; they have their elaborate and sensuous 
ceremonials ; they clothe their images with splendid 
apparel. They have pilgrimages to special shrines, 



Romanism and the Republic. 293 

exactly as idolators have always had. Moreover, 
among their mediators they glorify the Virgin Mary, 
as much or more than Christ. They depend for their 
salvation not on Christ alone, but as truly on martyrs, 
whom they petition, and to whom they appeal. They 
worship images ; they worship them all the world 
over, and believe that in the image itself there resides 
some supernal power. A large number of their 
images have been supposed to be able to work mira- 
cles, as I shall hereafter show you. Not only this, 
but theii" priests exercise the same extraordinary 
sway over the people that was exercised by the pagan 
priests in former times, and that is exercised to-day. 
Those priests are mediators between God and man. 
Men are dependent on them for forgiveness and 
heaven ! They with the martyrs and saints, the 
Virgin, the images and the mass, stand between God 
and man, and hold the superstitious veneration of 
millions of their deluded followers as beings almost 
more than human. But moreover : Romanism, like 
Paganism, is fiercely intolerant. It visits all other 
religions with anathema, with excommunication and 
with curse, and has visited them from time to time 
with the sword, with the Inquisition, and with the 
vengeance of torture and death. Moreover, as I 
showed you on last Sunday night, Romanism is 
grossly immoral. It teaches immorality by its theo- 
logians. It practices immorality by its Priests, 
Bishops, Popes and laymen. It justifies immorality 
by false reasoning ; and throughout all the world 
where its teachings prevail, exhibits a standard of 



294 Romanism and the Repithlic. 

moral teaching which is closely allied to that of 
paganism. Not only is Romanism immoral, but it is 
inhuman in its conception of the ideal man. Popes, 
Councils and Bishops have lauded what they call 
virginity or the unmarried state as far superior to holy 
marriage, while they have founded their innum- 
erable houses of monks and nuns which have needed to 
be reformed very many times by the laws of the 
Church, on account of the vile immorality into which 
they have plunged their votaries ; and while they 
have done this, they have multiplied immorality in 
practical life throughout all nations which they have 
controlled ; so that to read the history of Roman 
Catholic countries to-day is to read a history of 
viciousness which brings a blush to every Christian's 
cheek. 

While, therefore, Romanism, on one hand, has 
some attributes of Christianity ; on the other hand it 
has all the attributes of idolatry and paganism ; and 
I shall show this evening, and on next Sunday even- 
ing, if God spares us until that tiuie, first, that the 
Roman Catholic Church worships and indorses the 
worship of images; second, that they worship the 
mass, which is no more not' less in fact than an object 
of adoration, as God : third, that they worship the 
Pope, and call him God : again, that they worship 
saints and martyrs, and entreat their interest at the 
Throne of heavenly grace : in addition to this, they 
believe in charms, and attribute to them supernatu- 
ral powers. Relics, also, are objects of their wor- 
ship. The idols of Rome are scarcely fewer than 
the idols of India. 



Romanism and the liejpuhlic. 295 

Do you ask me wh}^ I bring this impeachment 
against them ? I answer, for the followino- reasons : 
They demand the allegiance of us all. They 
denounce against us the direst excommunication. 
They remand all of us to perdition (their Popes do, 
some of their liberal clergy do not) ; for I have read 
you from this pulpit the excommunication of all 
heretics by the Pope. They denounce our schools 
as godless, saying that they will make them godly by 
teaching Romanism ; which in itself is a ftdsehood of 
vast magnitude. And they are putting forth all their 
energies to substitute on this continent, in the last 
part of the 19th century, a sj^stem of religion as 
foreign to the intelligence and piety of our people 
as the system that prevails in India, or which 
prevailed in Egypt, or in the Roman Empire at the 
beo^innino' of the Christian era. Therefore I resent 
their claims ; therefore I call 3^our attention to them ; 
therefore I impeach their Christianity ; and therefore 
I pray, that the day may never come when we shall 
have idolatry substituted for the pure word of God 
and the fellowship of saints. 

The Roman Catholic Church is idolatrous, wor- 
shipping images and sanctioning their worship. That 
is a startling charge, but listen to the proof. 

In the first place, the Roman Catholic Church, in 
many of its standard works, takes out of the Ten 
Commandments the Second Commandment ; and in 
order to make ten, divides up the tenth into ninth 
and tenth. Here is their first attempt for the 
justification of their idolatry, the suppression of the 



296 Romanism and the JRepuhlic. 

word of God, so that the plain command, ''Thou 
shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor any 
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, 
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water 
under the earth ; thou shalt not bow down thyself 
to them, nor serve them," — this commandment is 
bodily rejected from the ten. I have here in my 
hand a list of five of their catechisms in which this 
has been done. Let me read. From Dr. Barnum's 
*' Romanism," p. 630, 1 read : '* The Roman Catholic 
Church sometimes suppresses the second command- 
ment of the decalogue in its catechisms," etc. Of works 
published in this country, "The Catechism of the 
Council of Trent," "The General Catechism of Chris- 
tian Doctrine," prepared by order of the National 
Council, "St. John's Manual," etc. , bring the first and 
second commandment into the first, and divide the 
tenth into the ninth and tenth. "Butler's Catechism," as 
published in New York, gives the Ten Commandments 
thus, word for word : "(1) ^ ^^^ ^^^^ Lord thy God : 
thou shalt not have strange gods before me, etc. 
(2) Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 
God in vain . [Here I omit what intervenes between 
the 2nd and 9th.] (9) Thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbor's wife. (10) Thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbor's goods." "Collet's Doctrinal and Scriptural 
Catechism " abridges the commandments still more : 
giving the first, on page 277, as: "Thou shalt not 
have strange gods before me," and then devoting 
more than thirty pages to this command as thus given. 
Yet on pp. 274 and 277, the copy of the command- 



Romanism and the Republic. 297 

ments as they are recorded in the Holy Scrip- 
tures, Book of Exodus, chapter 20, gives the first as 
above, with this in addition : *' Thou shalt not make 
to thee a graven thing : thou shalt not adore them 
nor serve them." The Catechisms published in this 
country are thus inconsistent in their citations of this 
commandment. Those published in thoroughly 
Roman Catholic countries probably omit more uni- 
formly that part of the First Commandment which 
we properly call the Second Commandment. The 
Roman Catholic Church thus rends the Ten Com- 
mandments, the basis of all moral law, in order that 
they may not, with all their affrontery, stand up 
defiantly and face the moral law as God gave it. 

Pagans were wont to set up images in nearly all 
places, as well as in all their temples. The Roman 
Catholics also set up images in all places : from the 
great fane of St. Peter's in Rome, down to the cross- 
roads in Switzerland and Italy, you find everywhere 
the images placed there by the Roman Catholic 
Church. Images form a part of the stock-in-trade 
of the religious furnishing-houses of that church. 
Images made of zinc, of the Virgin and the Child, are 
offered for sale at prices varying from $5 to $350. 
As concerning these images, the pagans formerly sup- 
posed that images (in some way, they knew not how,) 
contained the disembodied spirits of those whose 
image was worshipped. Romanism teaches exactly 
the same doctrine. I have a book here which I have 
not introduced to you before, written by the Right 
Hon. Lord Robert Montagu, who was a member of 



298 Romanism and the Republic. 

the Church of England, and who afterwards joined 
the Roman Catholic Church. He remained in that 
Church for a number of years, and at length left it 
on account of its utter madequacy to satisfy his soul, 
and has given us the benefit of his great learning and 
of his careful observation, in a work which is called 
^' The Sower and the Virgin ; " a work that is pub- 
lished in England, but which I am so fortunate as to 
have obtained. From this I will read (p. 162), to 
prove to you that Romanists believe that spiritual 
powers reside in their images : " Particular localities, 
churches, or shrines, were held to be more frequented 
by the saints than all other parts of the world, and 
those places were therefore visited by thousands, who 
came from vast distances to pray to those omniscient 
and omnipresent saints. Moreover, images of those 
saints, in accordance with the teachings of the Neo- 
platonists, were supposed to contain their disem- 
bodied spirits in some way, which rendered prayers 
to images an efficacious way of obtaining the fulfil- 
ment of one's desires. This was exactly the doc- 
trine of the pagan priests of antiquity. It was this 
doctrine which gave sanctity and power to the images 
of Jupiter, of Mercury and of Apollo. It was this 
doctrine which lay at the root of the practice of 
ignorant heathen, from the time of the primeval 
Chamites of Africa to the Turanians of India in their 
fetich worship. The bones of supposed martyrs, the 
bits of the real cross, the blessed crucifixes that had 
taken the place of the barsam, the amulets and talis- 
mans and charms, which were supposed, in old times, 



Romanism and the Republic, 299 

to foretell the future, to repel evil spirits, and to 
heal the diseases of body and mind." 

The Eiofhth General Council commands the adora- 
tion of images. The fatuous superstition of that age 
is perhaps more fitly illustrated by the third canon 
of the Eighth General Council, which was held in 
Constantinople, in 870 A. D. : "We decree that 
the holy image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the libera- 
tor and saviour of all men, shall be adored equally 
w^ith the Book of the Holy Gospels" (Remember, 
this w^as the infallible Council laying down dogmas 
that are just as much believed in the Roman Catholic 
Church as we believe the Bible) ; '* for as by uttering 
the syllables which are found written in that book 
we all attain our eternal salvation, so also, by the 
operation of the imagination on the colors of the 
image, we all, learned and unlearned, derive an 
^qual advantage. Every one, therefore, who does 
not adore an image of our Saviour, shall not behold 
Himself when he comes in his glory, to be glorified 
with and to glorify all his saints : but such an one shall 
be debarred from all communion with him in his 
glory. The same rule applies to the image of Mary, 
his pure mother, and the mother of God : so it does 
also to the imagoes of the holv ansrels, and also to 
images of the most praiseworthy apostles and pro- 
phets and martyrs and holy men, and to the images 
of all the saints. We must honor and adore all those 
images also. And if any one should omit to adore 
them all, let him be anathema from the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Spirit." (Montagu, p. 224.) 



300 Homanism and the Republic, 

Here you have the verbatim declaration of a 
General Council, which makes the salvation of every 
Romanist, and every other person, to depend on his 
adoration, not only of images of Christ, but images 
of the Virgin, and the apostles, and martyrs, and all 
other images that are set up in their churches to 
be worshipped. 

St. Thomas Aquinas is one of the great saints of 
the Roman Catholic Church ; and perhaps he deserves 
his saintship quite as well as any of them, for it must 
be said in truth, that many of the saints of the 
Roman Catholic Church were chiefly distinguished 
as sinners. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the 
service rendered to the person ought to be also paid 
to the image. I read on the 268th page of this book : 
" Thomas Aquinas declares that the same service 
or worship has to be paid both to the person and to 
the image of the person ; the same to an image of 
Christ as to Christ himself; the same to Mary and to 
an image of Mary ; the same to a saint and to an 
image of the saint. As Christ must be worshipped 
with supreme devotion, therefore an image of him 
must always be adored with supreme devotion." 
Further, Thomas Aquinas says, mentioning the 
cross on which Christ was crucified : ' ' We say that 
a cross is to be worshipped with the worship due to 
God ; and for this reason we supplicate a cross, and 
we pray to a cross, as if Clirist himself, hanging on 
the cross, were before us ! " 

Many and many a time, in foreign lands, have I 
seen the poor people drop down in the presence of a 



Romanism and the Repiiblic. 301 

cross by the road -side, or in a chapel, and embrace 
it as though they held the feet of Christ himself; and 
you remember, that in so doing, they are simply 
following out the teaching of their most revered 
theologians and their canonized saints. 

They claim further, that images have the 
power to work a A^ariety of miracles. I might read 
passages to you affirming this, and should be glad 
to, if I had time. There is in Auvergne, in France, 
an imao'e called The Black Viro^in, which is rever- 
enced by the superstitious people as the very 
Mother of God. This image is said to have per- 
formed a variety of miracles. Moreover, there are 
images that are said to roll their eyes, and other 
images sweat blood on given occasions ; wdiile other 
images are able to heal the sick, and others to o^ive 
personal benefits of great value to such as frequent 
their shrines. Some of these images have passed 
under my own eye, among them the famous Bambino. 
In the Church of the Aracoeli at Eome, at the 
Capitoline hill, there was formerly a bronze image 
of a she-wolf that was worshipped by the old Roman 
pagans. They have taken away the bronze image of 
the she-wolf, and have put in its stead one of the 
most hideous-lookino' wooden dolls that one ever 
beheld. That Bambino (the w^ord means baby) as 
an object of worship, I have looked at, while hundreds 
were thronging in and prostrating themselves before 
it. It is most carefully guarded by the priests of that 
Church, as containing miraculous power. More defer- 
ence is paid to the gem-crusted, swathed, ugly, mod- 



302 Romanism and the Bepuhlic. 

ern image of Bambino Jesu, kept by the friars of the 
church of Aracoeli, than to any other image of Christ 
in Rome. It is supposed to work miracles, and 
gems are offered from the sick whom it has healed. 
It is taken in a splendid carriage, with servants in liv- 
ery, to the sick person, and if when laid upon the 
body it remains red in the face a cure will be effected ; 
if it becomes pallid, the sick person will inevitably 
die. Not only so, but they adorn their deities with 
splendid dresses ; the Bambino is clothed royally, 
and decorated with orlitterinty crems. I have seen 
images of the Virgin clothed in ahnost royal robes. 
On her head crowns are placed sparkling with jewels, 
and these robes and these crowns are to make more 
life-like the images before which the superstitious 
people bend in fervent and devout adoration. If the 
day shall ever come when the shrines of Rome shall 
be spoiled for the sake of getting back into the hands 
of the impov«rished people a part of the ill-gotten 
wealth which has been lavished thereon, it will be 
found that there will be an abundance of treasures 
which now adorn images that are supposed to be 
invested with supernatural power. 

Charms are said to be wrought by little images, and 
those charms are believed in exactly as the pagans 
believed in theirs. " Just as Scylla, the dictator, 
consulted a little Apollo hung around his neck, 
(B. C. 68), so Pope Gregory XIY. (A. D. 1590) put 
his trust in a figure of St. Philip Neri, by which 
image he believed that his life was saved in an earth- 
quake at Beneventum." (Hare's '* Rome," vol. 2, 
page 168.) 



Romanism and the Republic. 303 

And so that man, the head of the Roman Catholic 
Church, arrogating to himself to be the vicar of 
Christ, worshipped as a demigod, and even a god, by 
his people, believed in charms ; exactly as the savage, 
roaming the Western plains, believes in the little 
bunch of hair that he carries about his neck ! 

Among the images that I must mention, m order to 
give you a just idea of their prominence, let me 
remark on that in St. Peter's, the image of Peter 
himself. Under that grandest dome in the world, in a 
church the splendor of which exceeds anything your 
eyes ever rested on, unless you have seen that itself, 
on a high pedestal, higher than my breast, stands 
this bronze statue, larger than life, cast from the bronze 
that was formerly in an old Roman statue, now made 
to represent the apostle Peter. This also is clothed 
with the Pope's robes, once in a year ; on its head is 
placed the triple crown, and on its finger the ring of 
the Pope ; and every day when that church is open, 
(I think it is open every day in the year), 
the throno^inoj multitudes crowd about the imaoe and 
bow themselves down before it as if it were God. 
The bronze statue of Peter is worshipped devoutly 
by the peasants and lower population, who kneel long 
on the marble floor before it ; then reverently approach 
to kiss the worn toe, that records the millions of 
kisses it has received. I saw a noble-looking priest, 
robed in white, his head as white as his dress, rever- 
ently approach this statue, carefully wipe the worn 
toe, kiss it, and press his forehead against it ; kiss it a 
second time with tokens of awe and reverence, and 



304 Romanism and the Republic, 

then retire as from the presence of a royal ruler. 
In the Cathedral at Pisa is an old image of Mars, now 
called St. Ephesus, and held in great veneration. 

" At St. Paul's Church, in Rome, is venerated a 
crucifix saved from the great fire of 1824, which 
spoke to St. Bridget. These are but a few instances 
from thousands of images worshipped." 

What farther proof is needed that the Roman 
Catholics are idolators by command of their councils ; 
by the command and toleration of their popes ; by 
the examples of their priests, and by the word of 
their greatest theologians ? Do you say that they 
only use these images for the sake of assisting devo- 
tion, and that they really do not worship them? I 
answer, that a friend of mine, who was a missionary 
in India, conversing with the better class of natives, 
asked : " Can it be that you worship these grotesque 
images ? " And they answered : ' ' Oh, no ; we do not 
worship the image. The image assists our devotion ; 
but we worship the great being that is suggested by 
it." So said they, and we call them idolators ; but as 
a matter of fact, we know that while the more intel- 
ligent Hindoo or Roman Catholic may think of 
diviner things than the statue, most of them pay 
their devotion to the statue itself, and suppose that the 
image has in it God ; just as much as the old Greek 
supposed that Zeus, or Minerva, or Approdite, 
or any other of their gods was present in the marble 
statues with which they decorated Athens, and to 
which they paid their vows. When these images 
are alleged to work miracles, to laugh and cry, to 



Romanism and the Republic. 305 

roll their eyes upward ^nd downward, to sweat drops 
of blood ; and when sometimes their perspiration is 
is said to be so holy that the people almost trample 
on each other to get closer in order that they may 
apply their finger to the sacred moisture ; when these 
things are occurring every day, how can we hesitate 
to affirm that the Romish adorers of images are vio- 
lating the fundamental law of God, and that they are 
idolators, just as much as any who ever lived on the 
face of the earth. 

I have not time, nor do I know as I have the dispo- 
sition, to tell you how these images are made to 
appear to work. Every intelligent person here 
present knows that by various devices all this could 
be done. However, for example, there was found 
an image in South America which had great fame as 
a sweating image. It was made of papier mache, 
and a pipe connected the interior of it with a hot 
water tank, from which the convenient liquid was 
passed into the statue, to the wonder of the awe- 
inspired crowd of worshippers. 

And they worship also the "mass." You know 
that Christian churches celebrate the Lord's supper 
by the use of bread and wine. The Roman Catholics, 
in celebrating the Lord's supper with very great cere- 
mony, get out of the bread, or the wafer, which they 
use at the mass (as they say in their catechism and 
their theological works), the body and blood, the 
spirit and divinity of Jesus Christ ; and when the 
priest has performed over this piece of bread the 
ceremonial of the mass, he bows down and worships 



306 Romanism and the Republic, 

it, as being truly and all divine ; and then lifts it up as 
a sacrifice to God. Father Chiniquy says, that when 
he was made a priest he believed that the making of 
the bread of the mass into the body of Christ was a 
greater miracle than that performed by Joshua when 
he commanded the sun and moon to stand still ; and he 
tells of the devout feelings with which he bowed him- 
self when, for the first time, this divine thing was in 
his hands. Pope Urban II. tells us, and I will read 
his own words, that this bread is truly God and to be, 
worshipped. (Montagu, page 231.) Pope Urban II. 
who had sanctioned the indiscriminate murder of all 
excommunicated persons, came to the Papal throne in 
1088. While presiding over a council, he made the 
following declaration, and all the members of the 
council shouted "Amen" : '* The hands of all priests 
are exalted to an eminence denied to all angels ; for 
priests create God, the Creator of the universe ; then 
with their hands they ofi*er him up for the sins of the 
whole world." There is more similar to this that I 
could read you, but this is sufficient. 

Father Chiniquy tells us, that when he was in the 
seminary of Nicolet in Canada, the Father-Superior was 
wont to tell them the following story, to illustrate the 
power of the priest : that once a French priest, con- 
demned to death, while passing along the street, 
performed the ceremony of the mass on every loaf 
of bread that there v/as in the street ; so that, accord- 
ing to the Father-Superior, every particle of that bread 
was the very body and blood, spirit and divinity of 
Christ. And he also told his students, that one priest 



JRomanism and the Republic, 307 

had the power, if he chose, to turn every loaf of bread 
in the universe into that same Divinity ! 

A friend of mine told me, ten years ago, that in 
the city of Montreal he could remember the time 
when a procession was passing, with the Host (that 
is, with the sacred bread made into the body of God), 
elevated in the midst of the procession ; and he said, 
the people were expected to fall on their knees all 
along that street as it passed. And when a Protest- 
ant gentleman declined to fall down, he was struck 
on the head a violent blow by one of the passers-by, 
and was compelled by force to kneel. That was in 
Canada within the past twenty years ; and it shows 
how great their reverence is for this mass- worship. 

In order to give you a clearer idea of this whole 
matter, allow me to read from an author who quotes 
Eoman Catholics so fully that his words are more 
emphatic and convincing than my own. I read from 
Edgar's "Variations of Popery," p. 418 : "Transub- 
stantiation varies from our ideas of matter and the 
evidence of the senses, while it presents the absurd- 
ity of creating the Creator, and the horror of canni- 
balism in eating the Incarnate God ! This dogma 
contradicts all our ideas of material substances. Mat- 
ter it represents as divested of dimension, figure, 
parts, impenetrability, motion, divisibility, exten- 
sion, locality, or quantity. Length, breadth and 
thickness, according to this theology, exist without 
anything long, broad or thick. Substance remains 
without accidents, and accidents without substance. 
The same body is in many places at the same time. 



308 Romanism and the Republic. 

Jesus, at the same instant, is entire in heaven, on 
earth, and on thousands of altars ; while millions of 
bodies are but one body. The whole is equal to a 
part, and a part equal to the whole. A whole human 
body is compressed into the wafer, and remains en- 
tire and undivided in each often thousand wafers. 

"The person who can digest all these contradictions 
must have an extraordinary capacity of faith — or 
credulity. 

**The Popish dogma also contradicts the infor- 
mation conveyed by our senses. 

"Sight, touch, taste, and smell declare flesh and 
blood, if this theory be true, to be bread and wine. 
No man can see, feel, taste or smell any difierence be- 
tween a consecrated and an unconsecrated wafer. The 
senses, not merely of one, but of all men, even when 
either the organ or medium is indisposed, are, ac- 
cording to this theory, deceived, without any possi- 
bility of detecting the fallacy. Many subjects, such 
as the Trinity and the Incarnation, are be3^ond the 
grasp of our bodily senses, and, indeed, of human 
reason ; these are to be judged by the testimony of 
revelation : but bread and wine are material, and level 
with the view of our organs of perception. The 
sacramental elements can be seen, smelled, touched 
or tasted. Our external organs, say the friends of 
transubstantiation, are in this institution deceived in 
all men, at all times, and on all occasions. 

"Cardinal Biel extends this power to all priests. 
*He that created me,' says the Cardinal, *gave me, if 
it be lawful to tell, to create Himself!' His Holiness 



Romanism and the Republic, 309 

not only manufactures his own God, but transfers, 
with the utmost freedom and facility, the same pre- 
rogative to the whole priesthood. 'This power,' Biel 
says, * exalts the clergy not only above emperors and 
angels ; but, which is a higher elevation, above Lady 
Mary herself. Her ladyship,' says the Cardinal, 
*once conceived the Son of God and the Redeemer of 
the world ; while the priest daily calls into existence 
the same Deity. These creators of God, therefore, 
excel the Mother of God.' The Popish clergy, as 
they make, so they eat their God, and transfer him to 
be devoured by others. The Papist adores the God 
whom he eats, and eats the God whom he adores. 
This divinity is tasted, masticated and swallowed, 
and, accidents excepted, digested. The eating of the 
sacramental elements, if transubstantiation be true, 
makes the communicant the rankest cannibal. He 
rivals the polite Indian, who eats the quivering limbs 
and drinks the flowing blood of the enemy. The 
Papist even exceeds the Indian in grossness. The 
cannibals of America and New Zealand swallow only 
the mangled remains of an enemy, and would sjiud- 
der at the idea of devouring any other human flesh ; 
but the partizans of Romanism glut themselves with 
the flesh and blood of a friend. The Indian only eats 
the dead ; while the papist, with more shocking fero- 
city, devours the living. The Indian eats man of 
mortal mould on earth ; the Papist eats God-man as 
he exists exalted, immortal and glorious in the heav- 
ens. The Egyptians worshipped sheep, oxen, garlic, 
onions ; but even these deluded votaries of idolatry 



310 Romanism and the Republic, 

and superstition abstained from eating the objects of 
their adoration. Tlie believer in the corporeal pres- 
ence, at once worships and swallows, adores and 
devours his deity. Saturn, according to pagan myth- 
ology, devoured his own offspring. Jesus, accord- 
ing to the Popish theology, swallowed his own flesh. 
He ate the sacred bread and drank the hallowed wine 
which he administered to the Apostles. Such are 
the horrors which follow in the train of this ab- 
surdity. 

*'This is the light in which the corporeal presence 
has been held, not only by Protestants, but also by 
Jews, Mahometans and heathens. * Christians,' said 
Crotus the Jew, * eat their God.' 'I have travelled 
over the world,' said Averoes, the Arabian philoso- 
pher, *and seen many people ; but none so sottish and 
ridiculous as Christians, who devour the God whom 
they worship.' Cicero entertained a similar opinion. 
'Whom,' says the Roman orator, *do you think so 
demented as to believe what he eats to be God?' 
Roman philosophy shames Romish theology ; tran- 
substantiation accepts the Popish deity to be de- 
voured not only by man, but also by the irrational 
animals. This divinity may yield a rich repast to 
mice, rats, vermin, worms, and every reptile that 
crawls on the earth. * The smallest mouse,' says Ber- 
nard, 'sometimes gnaws the species of the bread.'" 

Did you ever hear anything more absurd ? I think 
not. Would it not be a more reasonable and sensi- 
ble kind of idolatry for one to carve a little image 
with his own hands, as was so felicitously and so 



Romanism and the Republic, 311 

ridiculously deseribed by Isaiah the prophet in onr 
Scripture lesson : burn a part of it to get one's dinner, 
and save the little image as the object of one's wor- 
ship? And yet this idolatry of the "mass" is per- 
formed every Lord's Day once, twice, or thrice, in 
every Roman Catholic Church in this city, and the 
people are all taught just exactly this ! 

I have one more point to sustain, just before I 
close, and as you have heard me so kindly hereto- 
fore, I will now bring that to your attention. 

Not only do the Roman Catholics worship 
the **mass," but they worship the Pope as God ; they 
call him God. "The sainted Bernard affirms, that no 
one, except God, is like the Pope, either in heaven or 
on earth. The name and the works of God have 
been appropriated to the Pope by theologians, can- 
onists, popes and councils. Gratian, Pithou, Du- 
ram, Jacobatius, Musso, Gibert, Gregory, Nicholas, 
Innocent, the Canon Law, and the Lateran Council 
have complimented His Holiness with the name of 
Deity, or bestowed on him the Vicegerency of Hea- 
ven. On the authority of the Canon Law, they style 
the pontift' the Almighty's vicegerent, who occupies 
the place not of a mere man, but of the true God. 
According to Gregory II., 'the whole Western nations 
reckoned Peter a terrestrial God,' and the Roman 
pontiff of course succeeds to the title and estate. 
*The Emperor Constantine,' says Nicholas L, 'con- 
ferred the title of God on the Pope. He, therefore, 
being God, cannot be judged by man.' According 
to Pope Innocent III., the Pope holds the place of 



312 Romanism and the Republic. 

the true God. The Canon Law, in the gloss, denomi- 
nates the Roman hierarch 'Our Lord God.' Mar- 
cellus, in the Lateran Council and with its full appro- 
bation, called Julius, 'God on earth.' This was the act 
of the General Council, and therefore, in the Papacy, 
counted as the decision of infallibility." (Edgar, p, 
157.) 

Pope Sixtus ly. placed on a triumphal arch, 
erected on the bridge of St. Angelo, an inscription in 
which he calls himself God. On page 331 of this 
book of Montagu I find the following statement of 
that fact : After having given us some Latin concern- 
ing what the Pope did that I dare not translate in 
this presence, he says: "He set himself up as a 
god. On the triumphal arch, erected to his honor 
by his creatures, on the bridge of St. Angelo in 
Rome, these lines were inscribed : — 

*Thy words an oracle which all obey : 
That thou art God on earth we truly say.' 

This horrible man hired assassins to kill the Prince 
de Medici while at mass, and the elevation of the 
host was the preconcerted signal for the murderers to 
strike with their poniards. He, moreover, enriched 
himself by imposing a tax on the inhabitants of 
brothels ; and to increase his exchequer he encour- 
aged their multiplication ; so that, at last, Rome 
was said to be one vast brothel — a veritable 
mother of harlots." And yet, at this day, not one 
of all the Romish theologians, priests, bishops or 
Popes, dares to deny infallibility to this man ; and 
he is canonized as infallible, like God himself. 



Romanism and the Republic. 313 

If you have never heard of blasphemy, if you 
have never heard of idolatry, of paganism, in its 
lowest, most abominable and accursed form before, 
you have heard it to-night, from Komish Popes and 
theologians. The works and attributes of God are 
attributed to the Pope. *'The works as well as the 
name of God have been ascribed to the Pope, by In- 
nocent, Jacobatius, Durand, Detius, Lanier, the 
Canon Law and the Late ran Council. 'The Pope 
and the Lord,' in the statement of Innocent, Jacoba- 
tius and Detius, 'form the same tribunal ; so that, sin 
excepted, the Pope can do nearly all that God can 
do.' Jacobatius, in his modesty, uses the qualifying 
expression 'nearly,' which Detius, with more eifron- 
tery, rejects as unnecessary. 'The pontiff,' says 
Jacobatius and Durand, 'possesses a plenitude of 
power, and none dare say to him, any more than to 
God, 'Lord, what doest thou?' He can change the 
nature of things, and make nothing out of something, 
and something out of nothing.' The same is found, 
in all its absurdity, in the Canon Law, which attri- 
butes to the Pope the irresponsibility of the Creator, 
'the divine power of performing the works of God, 
and making something out of nothing.' The Pope, 
according to Lanier, at the Council of Trent, has 'the 
power of dispensing with all laAvs, and the same 
authority as the Lord.' An Archbishop, in the Lat- 
eran Synod, called Julius, 'Prince of the world;' and 
another orator styled Leo, 'The possessor of all power 
in heaven and on earth, to preside over all countries 
of the globe.' This blasphemy, the holy, unerring 



314 Romanism and the Republic. 

Roman Council heard without any disapprobation, 
and the pontiff with unmingled complacency. Some 
of the Popes,' says Coquille, 'have allowed them- 
selves to be called omnipotent.' Others make the 
Pope superior to God. According to Cardinal Zaba- 
rella, *The pontiffs, in their arrogance, assume the 
accomplishment of all they please, even unlawful 
things ; and thus raise their power above the Lord 
God.' The Canon Law declares that 'The Pope, in 
the plenitude of his power, is above God, can 
change the substantial nature of things, and transfer 
unlawful into lawful.' Bellarmine's statement is of a 
similar kind. The Cardinal affirms that the Pope can 
transubstantiate sin into duty, and duty into sin. 
'He can,' says the Canon Law, 'dispense with right.' 
Stephen, Archbishop of Petraca, declared in the 
Council of the Lateran, that Leo 'possessed power 
above all powers, both in heaven and in earth.' This 
brazen blasphemy passed in a General Council, and is, 
therefore, stamped with the seal of Roman infalli- 
bility." (Edgar's "Variations," Chap. IV.) 

I am going to close my sermon to-night with a 
little revelation made by a Roman Catholic saint. 
This Romish saint was a woman, and her name was 
Bridget. There are a great many Roman Catholic 
saints of that name, I suppose; but not all of 
them are deserving of the canonization which this 
Saint Bridget got. She was said to be an inspired 
woman. She said a great many things, about the 
year 1360, that caused her to be consecrated a saint 
in the Roman Catholic Church. Some of the things 



Romanism and the Hepublic. 315 

she said I cannot ao^ree with ; but the followino^ I think 
I can agree with fully. Saint Bridget says: '*The 
Pope is a murderer of souls. He destroys the flock 
of Christ, and fleeces it. More savage is he than 
Judas, and more unjust than Pilate, and worse and 
more wicked than Lucifer. He has exchanored all 
the ten commandments of God for this sino:le one of 
his own : 'Give me money, money, money !' "(I think 
St. Bridget had it right.) '*The Pope, with his clergy, 
are the forerunners of anti-Christ, rather than the 
servants of Christ. The Pope's court on earth plun- 
ders the heavenly court of Christ. The clergy never 
read the Book of God ; but they are ever studying 
the book of the world. For them the wisdom of 
God is reputed to be but folly, and the salvation of 
souls a mere fable." She adds: "I once loved 
priests more than men and even angels, but now they 
disgust me more than all the Jews and Gentiles, and 
all the devils, too. The kiss of peace of those forni- 
caticg priests is the kiss of Judas when he betrayed 
our Lord." (Those were awkward words for a saint 
and prophetess to have used.) Cardinal Cajetan 
tried to escape from it, by observing that Bridget was 
canonized during the great schism of the West, when 
there was no undoubted Pope, that is, no Pope 
at all, according to the maxim, 'A doubtful Pope is 
no Pope.' The Jesuit Cardinal Bellarmine tells us, 
that the Pope's canonizations are doubtful and sub- 
ject to error. Perhaps that was the reason why 
Pius v., who bribed Ridolfi to assassinate Queen 
Elizabeth, was canonized. But here again we get 



316 Romanism and the Republic, 

into diflSculty. The Pope's canonizations are sub- 
ject to error; but Cardinal Manning, in his '*True 
Story of the Vatican Council," p. 89, positively asserts 
that the canonization of saints comes under the head 
of **faith and morals ;" in all which cases the Pope's 
judgment is infallible, they say. Putting the two 
Cardinals together, we get this result : The Pope's 
infallibility is fallible and subject to error. To make 
matters worse, Cardinal Newman, in his preface of 
1887 to his ''Via Media," p. 84, says of canonization, 
* The infallibility of the Church must certainly extend 
to this solemn and public act, canonization ; and that 
because on so serious a matter, affecting the worship 
of the faithful, . . . the Church, that is, the Pope, 
must be infallible.' 

"So then, the canonization of Bridget was infallible, 
and her revelations were authentic and true ; and, 
therefore, it follows, that the Pope is a murderer, 
and more savage than Judas, and more unjust than 
Pilate, and that he has exchanged all God's Ten 
Commandments for this one of his own — 'Give me 
money, money, money.'" ( Montagu, pp. 305-6. ) 

I am glad St. Bridget was canonized. There are 
some Romish saints in whom I believe, and St. Bridget 
in just so far, is one of them. Thus by Rome, truth 
is mingled with contradictions, follies, irrationalities, 
absurdities, things ridiculous, contemptible, disgUvSt- 
ingand diso^raceful. And this is the relio^ion that is 
to be taught in "godly" schools! and this is what 
we are to have substituted for the " godlessness" of 
New England education ! I 



Sermon IE. 



SHALL ROMANISM TEACH A PAGAN MORALITY TO 
AMERICAN YOUTH ? 

You will find our text exactly where you found it 
last Sabbath evening, the first three of the Ten 
Commandments, in the Book of Exodus, the tenth 
chapter : 

** Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 

*^ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, 
or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, 
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water 
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thy- 
self to them, nor serve them ; for I, the Lord, thy 
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the 
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth 
generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy 
unto thousands of them that love me and keep my 
commandments. 

*' Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 
God in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him guilt- 
less that taketh his name in vain." 

The pagan idolators, of whom we spoke on last 
Sabbath evening, added to the list of their gods who 
represented men, goddesses also, or women gods ; so 
that every idolatrous cult in the world has female 



318 Romanism and the Republic. 

divinities, as well as male. The Egyptians had Isis, 
as well as Osiris ; the Phoenicians Astarte, or Ash- 
taroth, as well as Baal ; the Greeks, Hera, as well as 
Zeus ; the Romans, Juno, as well as Jupiter. They 
had many other female gods besides these chiefest 
ones that I have named, too many to mention. The 
Eomans, who in the great city of Rome had the seat 
of their empire and their most splendid temples, 
worshipped not only Juno, but Venus, Fortuna, 
Ceres and many others, who received almost equal 
adoration with the first named. The descriptive 
names by which these goddesses were called, were 
almost the same in all lands. The various peoples 
spoke of them as " Queen of Heaven," " the mother 
of gods," or '* mother of God," "the mediatrix 
between God and man." They characterized them 
as '* defenders," ''protector," " solicitor" or "plead- 
ers" for human welfare. 

On the very ground where the goddesses were wor- 
shipped, and before the people had forgotten the 
forms of idolatry that were so persistent in their 
national history, there sprang up a corrupt form of 
Christianity, that put in place of these goddesses, 
especially the chiefest of them, a wholly imaginary 
being, suggested by a historical character, unlike all 
the creatures of her sex, and having the idolatrous 
names that were applied to the old heathen god- 
desses, under the primary name of The Virgin Mary. 
She, too, is called by her worshippers the " Queen- 
of heaven," as was the Phoenician Astarte; she is 
called the " mother of God," as was the Egyptian 



Momanism and the Hepublic, 319 

Isis ; she is known as the mediatrix between God, 
the great God, and men, as was Fortuna, the god 
dess of fortune ; she is addressed as the mother of 
love, as was Yenus of the Romans, and the Aphro- 
dite of the Greeks. The ordinary Protestant, little 
informed of the worship of the Virgin Mary, who is 
known by all these names, can hardly conceive of 
the prominence that she has in the Romish ritual. 
To her they oifer prayer, adoration and devotion ; to 
her they erect the most splendid of their churches 
and temples of worship ; to her they consecrate their 
most sacred shrines ; to her they raise the most 
costly and splendid images, which images they adorn 
with richest and almost royal apparel ; the prayers 
to her are the most popular in the Romish Church ; 
the " Rosary of Mary," as it is called, is their favorite 
act of devotion. And they so fill the horizon of the 
Romish mind with Mary, that after you have trav- 
elled in Roman Catholic countries, as I have done, 
you come to the inevitable conclusion that Mary has 
a very much larger place in the thought of a Roman 
Catholic than is given to Jesus Christ. 

The Protestant mind, accustomed to a generous 
sentiment toward all religions, (for tolerance is the 
law of Protestantism), is accustomed to regard the 
worship of The Virgin Mary in a somewhat esthetic 
and sentimental light. We are wont to say, that to 
bring into the barbarous times of the early ages the 
idea of a woman, pure, good and elevated, who 
should take the place of the cruel gods, the thoughts 
of whom debased the minds of the people, was a very 



320 Ilomanism and the Republic. 

happy idea, and mast have exerted a softening, 
genial, and gracious influence upon the minds of 
those who were taught thus to reverence and adore 
her. 

This kindly sentiment toward Romish idokitry 
is not warranted by the facts of history. For 
the worship of the goddesses of the pagans was 
always attended with the worst obscenity, the 
utmost vice, and the most abominable rites. There is 
nothing in the worship of the man-gods of the Egyp- 
tian, Phcenieian, Grecian or Roman that can be com- 
pared for abominableness with the worship of their 
woman gods : and while sentiment may suggest to 
you that the elevation of a woman to the high plat- 
form which The Virgm Mary is occupying in the 
Roman Catholic Church, may have a happy and 
tender effect upon the popular mind, you must 
remember that history is against you ; and while 
Protestantism teaches us to cherish the most elevated 
sentiment toward noble and pure womanhood, 
woman vjorshijp has always been the fruitful source 
of the greatest abominations that ever afflicted the 
w^orld. Montague says, that Mariolatry, in the Roman 
Church, has always flourished most in times of the 
greatest immorality and wickedness. When, there- 
fore, The Virgin Mary (not the real virgin of the 
Holy Scriptures, not the maid of Nazareth who wel- 
comed the message of her Lord, and who, with human 
infirmity and frailty, herself doubted the Messiah- 
ship of her Son, and afterward finished her life in 
quiet with John, (the beloved apostle as we suppose) — 



Homanism and the Hepublic. 321 

when the Virgin Mary of Roman Catholic worship, 
who is made up of myth and legend, imagination and 
superstition unwarranted by history, is elevated to 
divinity in the minds of Roman Catholics, there are 
very many things expressed and implied connected 
with her worship that have the flavor of idolatry in 
its worst forms. 

Among the nameable things, they say of her that 
she was immaculate in her conception ; that is to say, 
that she had no taint of original sin when she was 
born of her mother. They say also, that she was 
perpetually a virgin ; that she had no other children 
than Jesus Christ ; although the Bible says difierently . 
They say, that she was carried up to heaven without 
going through the process of death and decay as we 
go through it, and glorify in art this alleged *' Assump- 
tion of the Virgin." The immaculate conception ot 
the Virgin Mary, which takes her out of the ranks of 
those tainted with original sin, is a dogma of the 
Roman Catholic Church, which they must believe 
under penalty of loss of salvation. 

On the eighth day of December, 1854, Pope Pius 
IX. sat under the dome of St. Peter's, with a triple 
crown, blazing with jewels, on his head, and with the 
splendid apparel of the Pope upon his shoulders. 
Around him knelt five hundred prelates and digni- 
taries of the church ; before him were ten thousand 
of j;he faithful ; and in the great square outside fully 
forty thousand more. As they solemnly waited in 
this presence, a cardinal arose, and advancing toward 
the Pope, said slowly : *' Father, tell us if we shall 



322 Romanism and the Republic. 

believe and teach that The Virgin Mary was immacu- 
late in her conception ; " and the Pope solemnly 
answered, ''We do not know. Let us inquire of 
the Holy Spirit." And all joined to sing, " Come, 
Holy Spirit." Then the cardinal again arose, and 
advancing as before, asked the same question, and 
the Pope answered: " We do not know now. Let 
us ask the Holy Spirit." And once more the assem- 
bled thousands sang, " Come, Holy Spirit." When 
for the third time, in all the pomp and magnificence of 
ceremony, the cardinal advanced, the Pope answered 
to the question, '' Shall we believe and teach that The 
Virgin Mary was immaculate in her conception?" 
''Yes, Yes. The Virgin Mary was immaculate in 
her conception. So believe and teach. There is no 
salvation to those who deny this teaching." And 
it was then proclaimed a dogma of the Church. 

So, in contradiction of the opinions of many 
of the most distinguished fathers of the Church, 
after long years of effort on the part of the 
most superstitious wing, contrary to sound reason, 
contrary to truth, and in contradiction of the 
claim of the Church which says it never 
changes, in the year 1854 was made a new 
dosma, which thousands of Roman Catholics do not 
believe, but which they were told they must believe 
on pain of the displeasure of the Church and the 
penalties which are inflicted on heresy. 

I proceed now to show you that The Virgin Mary 
is a veritable idol goddess, in the worship of the 
Roman Catholic Church ; but as I pass, I wish to vin- 



Romanism, and the Republic. 323 

dicate in a few words the authorities that I shall 
quote. The only embarrassment which I meet, is the 
abundance of authorities and the fulness of their testi- 
mony. Every night when I have spoken to you, the 
time has expired before I could give you all that I 
had selected bearing on the subject under discussion. 
But some have said to me, That certain Roman Cath- 
olics deny that the authorities which you bring for- 
word are truthful in their statements. For instance, 
when you bring forward St. Liguori, they say, either 
that he did not say this ; or else, that St. Liguori has 
no authority. You remember that this distinguished 
saint is the one from whom I read so freely in regard 
to theft, lying, and sundry other things, a few 
nights since. I think I fully vindicate his right to 
speak for the Roman Catholic Church, by the fact 
that the Sacred Congregation of Rites, of Rome, after 
twenty years' examination of the works of St. 
Liofuori, said, that there was " not one word in all his 
writings that could justly be found fault with." 
In 1852, an edition of the " Glories of Mary," by St. 
Liguori, appeared with the sanction of Cardinal 
Wiseman of Ensfland, and the eminent Cardinal 
Manning, in 1868, spoke in the highest terms of 
approval of this authority. 

The kind of testimony that I bring to you here is 
the kind of testimony that I think would stand before 
a jury ; and if Roman Catholics, or any others, deny 
or seriously doubt it, I will meet them with the fol- 
lowing proposition : Let us enlarge this jury until it 
numbers two thousand people. The Roman Catholics 



324 Romanism and the Republic, 

shall select one thousand, and I will select one 
thousand, under mutually fair conditions. I will meet 
any priest of Rome of the city of Worcester, or from 
any other part of the country, on the public platform, 
in Mechanics Hall. I will present the authorities 
for sustaining every proposition which I have made 
here. If they can refute them, or show that they are 
unreliable, I will withdraw them, provided that they 
on their part agree, that if I can substantiate my 
statements by full proof, they will accept them, and 
confess error. 

I have stated on this platform at least a hundred 
propositions. I began by stating, concerning the 
Jesuits, what they were, and what they do. I am 
prepared to make good all that I have stated. In 
my third discourse, I said that the Pope was the 
enemy of civil and religious freedom, and substan- 
tiated that by various testimonies. I am prepared to 
bring forward those theses and stand by them until 
they are refuted. I then set forth in at least twenty 
particulars that Romanism was contrary to the Con- 
stitution and the laws of the United States. I do 
not retract one word of that argument, and am will- 
ing to have any representative of the Roman Catholic 
Church take up these statements before a selected 
audience for the purpose of fairly refuting the argu- 
ment. I then, in three sermons, set forth that the 
purpose of Romanism was to destroy our public 
schools. Those sermons stand unimpeached, until 
they can be contradicted by something more than the 
round assertion that my statements are not true. 



Ttomanism and the Republic, 325 

And what I say about the paganism of Rome I am 
prepared also to vindicate, by adducing still more 
copious proofs, in any presence, whether before a con- 
gregation of Worcester, or the just bar of the eternal 
God. Let no man therefore say that the authorities 
which I quote are not reliable, unless he knows it; 
and if he knows it, let him so say it that I may have 
the benefit of his proofs. For I say to you, my 
friends, here to-night, that mere victory in an intel- 
lectual struofS'le has never been dear to me. Truth 
is more precious than rubies ; the triumph of truth 
is all that I seek. If I have it not, let me have it ; 
and if I have it, let no man wrest it from me. 
Truth, truth I want ! Not arrogance, not presump- 
tion, not pretence, not false history, not round 
denial ! Truth let us have ; and if that truth cuts 
away the foundation of Protestantism, let us thereby 
get nearer to the Rock of Ages ; if it demolishes the 
pretences of Romanism and sinks the system, let us 
man the life-boat to save every man of them, by hold- 
ing^ out the truth of God. 

And now, in harmony with this purpose, I proceed 
to show that the worship of the Virgin Mary in the 
Romish Church is idolatrous ; that she is really wor- 
shipped as a divine being with divine attributes, 
according to the consent and statements of Popes, of 
cardinals, of saints, and of doctors of theology. 

I. My first proposition is, that they consider and 
call The Virgin Mary divine, giving her the attri- 
butes of Jehovah. Pardon me if I read the proofs. 
I wish I were a better reader, but you are such good 



326 Romanism and the Republic, 

listeners that it takes away the half of my embarrass- 
ment. 

1. Divine powers, and powers above divhie, are 
accorded to Mary. St. Bernardinus Senensis offers 
to us the following, in one of his sermons, (and a 
saint becomes a saint because he receives the sanc- 
tion of the Eoman Catholic Church) : '* In order to 
become the mother of God, the blessed Virgin Mary 
had to be raised to an equality loith the Trinity, so to 
speak, by being made infinite in perfections and 
graces, an equality which no creature ever obtained. 
He who was himself God, served, and was subject to 
His mother on earth. Yes, this is true. All things 
are subject to the empire of the Virgin ; even God 
Himself is subject to her." Proceeding further, he 
says: *'The blessed Virgin, all alone, did more for 
God, or at least as much, so to speak, as God did for 
the whole human race. Rendering, then, to each their 
due, (that is to say, what God did for man, and 
what the blessed Virgin Mary did for God,) you ivill 
perceive that Mary did more for God than God did 
for man J" Again he says : " There is no grace comes 
from heaven to us, unless The Virgin Mary dis- 
penses it to us. For this office she, and she alone, 
obtained of God from all eternity ; as is testified by 
Proverbs 8 : 23 : 'I was set up from everlasting ; ' 
that is, as the dispenser of all heavenl}^ gifts." 

2. It is also distinctly stated by authorities of 
the Church that The Virgin Mary is omnipotent', 
where it is said : * ' The most blessed Virgin is the 
Empress, because she is the wife of the eternal 



Romanism and the Republic. 327 

Emperor, of whom it was said ' He that hath the 
Bride is the Bridegroom.'" Further: " Since the 
blessed Virgin is the mother of God, and God is her 
son ; and since every son is by nature inferior to his 
mother, and is her subject, and the mother has the 
pre-eminence and is superior to and above her son ; 
it follows that the blessed Virgin is superior to and 
above God, and God is her subject, because of the 
humanity which He derived from her." This was 
Bernardinus de Bustis, who flourished about the year 
1480, and who was a Franciscan monk. 

3. The Virgin Mary is said to be possessed of 
infinite power. It certainly was a great privilege 
and most singular grace that was conferred upon her, 
they say ; while Laurentius Chrysogonus and a mod- 
ern saint and doctor of the Roman Church (the 
places in their works are given) say the following : 
**To the most holy Virgin all things are possible, 
because of the most high dignity of her Divine 
maternity, which brought her an infinite povjer and 
empire in the things of all the world." This is con- 
tinued and amplified ; but the expression ''infinite 
power " fully vindicates my statement that they 
accredit her with infinite power. 

4. They, in so many words, declare that she is 

eternal ; as, for instance, when it is said by St. Sabas 

the abbot : " O, virgin-mother of God ; of thee alone 

it has been proved to the world that thou wast pure 

from all eternity.'^ And this is very much like an 

Orphic ode from the heathen poets to heathen divin- 
ities, and reminds the classical scholar of such, 



328 Romanism and the Ttepuhlic, 

They pay to her divine honors, and think her worthy 
of those honors. This I shall also so amply prove in 
further quotations, that several quotations I had 
intended here to employ I will omit. 

5. She is called the "lamb of God," as I will 
read to you now. Georgius, the Archbishop of 
Nicomedia, is quoted by Zoller, a Roman Catholic 
historian of the whole doctrine of the Immaculate 
Conception, as saying, in the passage which the Arch- 
bishop addresses to the Virgin Mary : " immacu- 
late Lamb, who wast taken up to the feast of angels, 
and fed with angels' food : O immaculate Lamb, 
victim acceptable to God, who wast offered in God's 
temple, and from whom was born that Lamb of God 
who takes away the sins of the world : O Lamb 
verily immaculate, more pleasing than every sacri- 
fice, who wast sacrificed to the Creator, not as an 
offering rendered acceptable by God, but as accept- 
able through the excellence of her purity." 

6. She is also called the wife of Christ. This 
passage I will read from one of the saints already 
quoted, St. Sabas, the abbot, and this is only one of 
many passages teaching us the same : " From thee, 
Mary, Christ's only parent, did thy husband come 
forth — thou most pure lily, growing amid thorns 
and thistles." 

7. She is said to be married to God the Father. 
You will see in a moment that all these are only repro- 
ductions of the old heathen fables. A Cardinal of 
the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Hostiensis says : 
** There is a state of marriage existing between God 



Romanism and the Republic. 329 

and the blessed Virgin Mary," (and the Latin phrase 
is given here that he uses) ; *' wherefore it is 
said : Lo ! thou art fair, my love ; behold thou 
art fair ; thou hast dove's eves ! " As thous^h the 
Father God ever said this to the Virgin Mary ! 
'* The Angel Gabriel was sent," says Cardinal Hos- 
tiensis ; "then the contract was made between 
the parties by the words : ' Thou hast found favor 
with the Lord,'" and so on. 

Now if you compare this with ancient myths you 
will find in it a very remarkable likeness to them. 
The Egyptian God Khem, w^as called Kuh-mut, the 
husband of his mother. That is identical with what 
is said about Christ and the Virgin Mary. The 
youngest Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis (brother 
and sister) , and he too was husband of his mother. 
In Rome, it was Fortuna and Jupiter. So concerning 
Janus, he was both the son and husband of Cj-bele. 
In Asia, it was Cybele and Deioius. In Greece, 
Cybele was called Ceres, the great mother ; also 
Domina, or Our Lady ; and she was represented 
holding a babe. In India, we find the mother and 
child as Isi or Parvati and Iswara. We also find 
that Astarte, the Phoenician goddess, was said to be 
the wife of her son. Yet again, the same strange 
and awful blasphemous statement is made, that Mary 
is the wife of God the Father ! 

8. She is also called the sole mediatrix ; that is, 
the one standing between God and man, by whom all 
favors can come to this world. Let me read to you 
the exact language. In St, Bonaventura's writings it 



330 Romanism and the Hepuhlic, 

is said : '' O, our Empress" (this is in a work called 
the *' Crown of the Virgin Mary ") , " and Lady most 
benign, by thy maternal rights, command thy most 
beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to vouchsafe to 
turn our minds from the love of earthly things, and 
direct them to heavenly thoughts. Since the blessed 
Virgin is the advocate for sinners, the glory and 
crown of the righteous, the wife of God, and the 
couch of the whole Trinity to lie upon, and the 
most beautiful bed for the Son to prostrate himself 
upon, therefore sin had no place in her." 

Then St. Bonaventura, in order to carry out this idea 
of the divineness of the Virgin, made a paraphrase 
on the Psalms of David, in which he puts her name 
in place of the Divine name in every case, and thus 
lauds and magnifies her as Grod. travestying the 
Holy Scriptures in order to express the same. It 
will sound strange to you to hear the Sacred Word so 
read ; but let us hear it. The language was used in 
the *' Psalter of The Virgin Mary," and received the 
sanction of the Pope. In Psalm 109, for instance : 
'* The Lord said to our Lady: Come and sit. My 
mother, on My right hand, until I make thy foes thy 
footstool." Psalm I: "Blessed is the man who 
loveth thy name. Virgin Mary." Psalm II : 
** Come unto her, all ye who labor and are heavy 
laden, and she will give rest and comfort unto 
your souls. Come unto her, when in tribulation, 
and the light of her countenance will establish you." 
Psalm III: *'Our Lady! how are they increased 
that trouble me. But thou art a shield for me ; 



Homanism and the Republic, 331 

with thy power thou shalt pursue and scatter them. 
Have mercy upon me, O our Lady, and heal thou 
my sickness." Psalm XXX : '* Into thy hands, O 
our Lady, do I commend my spirit." 

Reading thus from this blasphemous perversion of 
God's word, I might go on and give passage after 
passage, taken from that Psalmody, by which the Vir- 
gin Mary is elevated by this Roman Catholic saint to 
the place of the Lord God. They even corrupt the 
wonderful Te Deum which we sometimes sing. In 
the Paris edition of 1852, you find the following as 
standing for the Te Deum, in place of the familiar be- 
ginning : *'We praise Thee, O God ; we acknowledge 
Thee to be the Lord ; " ** We praise thee, O Mary, 
we acknowledoe thee to be the Yiro^in. All the 
earth doth worship thee, the wife of the Eternal. 
To thee all creatures continually do cry : Holy, holy, 
holy, Mary, mother of God, mother and virgin. The 
glorious company of the apostles praise thee, as the 
mother of their Creator." The Litany also is adapted 
in the same way. 

Did you know that these were the sentiments of 
saints, popes and divines of the Roman Catholic 
Church ? Have you thought that we were surrounded 
by idolatry identical with the worship of the ancient 
heathen goddesses ? Had you supposed that these 
unfortunate worshipers were so under the bond- 
age of Papal superstition that they were standing 
1900 years behind this age, in the dark of super- 
stition, and calling on a human creature, deified as 
the ancient pagans deified their heroes and heroines, 



332 Romanism and the Hepuhlic, 

as though she were God, attributing to her divine 
names and functions, making her the equal of the 
whole Trinity ; saying that her power is infinite, that 
she is eternal, and that she is the sole sacrifice for 
human sin, and the veritable lamb of God? And 
yet, this is all taken from Roman Catholic authorities, 
and has been indorsed, and never protested against, 
by this infallible church ! 

II. Mary is worshipped as God; not only called 
divine, but worshipped as God; having not only the 
name of God, but the adoration due to God. Now 
we know that there is a mas^ical charm, to the Enof- 
lish-speaking peoples, in the name of John Henry 
Newsman — the Cardinal Newman who left the Ens^- 
lish Church, and was honored for his apostacy by 
the Roman Catholic Church w^ith the cardinalate. 

1 . Cardinal Newman, unfortunately plunging him- 
self into this abyss of superstiition, uses the follow- 
ing language concerning the Virgin Mary : "There 
was a wonder in heaven." "A throne was seen, far 
above all created powers, mediatory, intercessory; a 
title archetypal ; a crown bright as the morning star ; 
a glory issuing from the eternal Throne ; robes pure 
as the heavens ; and a sceptre over all. And who 
was the predestined heir of that majesty ? Who was 
that wisdom, and what was her name? *The mother 
of fair love, and fear, and holy hope,' *exalted like a 
palm tree in Engaddi, and a rose plant in Jericho ;' 
'created from the beginning,' in God's counsel ; and 
'in Jerusalem was her power?' The vision is found 
in the Apocalypse : a woman clothed with the sun, 



Ilo7nanism and the Republic. 333 

and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a 
crown of twelve stars. The votaries of Mary do not 
exceed the true faith, unless the blasphemers of her 
Son come up to it. The Church of Rome is not 
idolatrous, unless Arianism is Orthodoxy ! ! " 

Thus speaks the chief dignitary of the Romish 
Church in Great Britain, in his " Essay on Develop- 
ment." And this he says after such a panegyric upon 
the Maid of Nazareth, who, if she were alive and here 
in our midst, Avould deprecate his idolatry as much 
as any one of us can. 

There w^as an attempt made by some of the Rom- 
ish writers to assume that -the worship paid to the 
Virgin Mary w^as different from the worship paid to 
God ; and they had two or« three Greek words by 
which they described the shade of difference between 
the worship of the Virgin and the martyrs and the 
worship of God. They said that the worship of the 
martyrs was "cZw?m," that the worship of the Virgin 
was '' hyper dulia,'''' that the worship of God was 
^^LatriaJ'^ Confusion only follows these words, 
which have hardly a shadow of difference in their 
meaning, and they were pronounced by Cardinal 
Bellarmine totally unequal to the work of preventing 
the same worship being paid to the images and to the 
Virgin as was paid to God Himself. 

2. They worship the Virgin Mary as a goddess. 
In the city of Lisbon, Portugal, there is a church 
dedicated to Mary as a goddess, in the following 
words: "To the Virgin, goddess of Loretto, the 
Italian race, devoted to her divinity, have dedicated 



334 Homanistn and the Repuhlic. 

this temple." I have seen kindred inscriptions to 
that on old Roman temples, where some object of 
their idolatry had received the dedication from their 
votaries of the palaces in which they were worship- 
ped. Here they have spoken in no uncertain tones, 
and the Virgin of Loretto, a divinity and a goddess, 
has a modern temple dedicated to her, in one of the 
most Roman Catholic countries of the world ! 

III. Mary is repeatedly praised as Saviour. This 
praise runs through nearly all that is said of her, and 
is so generously given that it does not seem as though 
there is any necessity for any other God, since she 
fulfills all the functions of- the same. It is said, for 
instance, in one of the standard writers of the Roman 
Catholic Church : "I and my Father are one," par- 
odying the same and applying it to the Virgin Mary. 
Again, there is a plate of the crucifixion with Mary at 
the foot of the Cross, having a sword in her breast, 
and the inscription : '* Thy beloved Son did oflfer in 
sacrifice His flesh for us ; but thou didst offer in 
sacrifice thy soul, — yea, both thy body and thy soul." 
You see pictures of the bleeding heart of Mary in 
Roman Catholic book and picture stores, and the 
sword thrust through her heart indicates, as above 
stated, that she suffered more than Jesus ; while He 
gave His body to suffer, she gave the sufferings of 
her soul. She is idolatrously worshipped : worshipped 
as any one would Avorship the supreme Deity. 

Liguori had occasion to express himself on the 
Divine powers of Mary in the following words (I 
do not think I will take time to read it all, but his 



Romanism and the Republic, 335 

*' Glories of Mary '* contains an extended portrayal 
of her powers, some portions of which are not fit to 
be repeated. Suppose I tell the substance, wnthout 
reading it, to save time) : Liguori tells a story, and 
the incident is also narrated by Father Chiniquy and 
Hallam as a sample of Romish fable, displaying the 
divine power of Mary. He says, that a certain nun, 
becoming tired of her vows, forsaking the nunnery 
in which she lived, plunged into a life of sin ; after a 
period of ten years, she came back and inquired if 
sister Beatrice (meaning herself) was missed from 
the nunner}'-, and they answered : Oh, no ; she had 
never gone away or been missed ; she was there, and 
was one of their most devoted nuns. And then it 
came to pass, says Liguori, that Beatrice found out 
that the Virgin Mary, out of love for her, had 
taken her place and performed her duties for the 
space of ten years or more ; whereupon, of course, 
she penitently enters the nunnery again, and becomes 
a most devoted nun. 

There is a similar fable told of a young girl who 
was beloved of two men, and these men contendins; 
about her, in the conflict her head was accidentally 
cut ofl" and thrown into a well. (Xow it is a great 
misfortune to lose your head under such circumstan- 
ces.) But presently the head appeared on the well- 
curb and remained there for two days. It desired to 
confess, saying : " I was in mortal sin when my life 
was taken. I have come to confess." And after she 
had confessed, and variously exhorted the people, I 
suppose the head went back into the well. But St. 



336 Romanism and the Republic, 

Liguori, telling this as a sample of Mary's power, says 
that the reason why the murdered girl had this oppor- 
tunity to get out of perdition by confession was, 
because she had been very faithful in her use of the 
rosary of Mary ; and Mary, out of her marvellous love 
for her, undertook to save her in this astonishing 
manner. 

There are stories that are not so fit to be repeated, 
in which Mary is represented with very remarkable 
power over her special votaries, and the wonders that 
she works are as marvellous as they are fabulous. 

And these narrations are taught as history to 
Roman Catholic youth. I prefer Swinton's History. 

Pope Sixtus IV., of whom I told you on last Sunday 
night, who erected a triumphal arch on the bridge of 
St. Angelo, on which he called himself God, granted 
to those who prayed to the Virgin Mary an indul- 
gence of one hundred thousand years. I should say 
that if an indulgence of one hundred thousand years 
is so easily obtained, the believers in Mary had 
better bestir themselves and get as many indulgences 
as they can. It must be very convenient for some 
of them to have a little surplus of indulgence to keep 
them out of purgatorial fire. 

In the prayer-books of this time, there is a prayer 
to the Virgin Mary to which Pope Sixtus IV. had 
attached an indulgence of 11,000 years for all who 
should devoutly recite it. In a Dutch prayer-book 
of the beginning of the next century, there is a prayer 
to Mary which carries an indulgence of 100,000 years, 
too"ether with many other such graces of shorter 



Romanism and the Republic, 337 

periods. Some of these indalgences of 20,000 years 
are given to every one who shall say five Paternosters 
before such and such an image, and are full of super- 
stition. There is one of the Popes who granted an 
indulgence, Pope John XXII., (he was the man 
who cursed the Council of Constance and got as good 
as he gave,) that any one who should kiss the meas- 
urement of the Virgin Mary's shoe ( I have not 
learned how they got that) , was granted an indul- 
gence of 700 years. I suppose in some place they 
have what they allege to be the measurement of this 
sacred foot, and whoever should go to that place and 
kiss the proper spot should have an indulgence of 
700 years. 

The rosary of Mary, says Dr. Barnum, in his book, 
is the most popular of all the forms of Roman Catho- 
lic devotion. That rosary has on it 15 beads, and 
every one of these has associated with it a special 
thought of prayer. These prayers are offered vari- 
ously, with certain changes of form and manner, to 
the Holy Virgin Mary. 

But returnino^ now to Lio^uori. I wish to read 
to you what he says in his " Glories of Mary" con- 
cerning the excellence of this divinity that he wor- 
ships. I can only read a part of his praises and 
ascriptions. On the fourth pas^e of this book, which is 
put into the hands of the people as a manual of devo- 
tion in the Roman Catholic Church, and which Father 
Chiniquy says he studied when he was a student 
in Canada, it is said : "It is the will of God that all 
graces should come to us by the hand of Mary." 



338 Romanism and the Rej^uhlic, 

Page 5 : "To reverence the Queen of Angels is to gain 
eternal life." Page 8 : "All graces are dispensed by 
Mary ; and all who are saved, are saved only by means 
of this Divine Mother." Page 14: "The Eternal 
Father gave the office of Judge and Avenger to the 
Son ; and that of showing mercy, and relieving the 
necessitous, to the Mother.'' Page 16 : "We believe 
that she opens the abyss of God's mercy to whomso- 
ever she will, when she will, and in the way she will ; 
so that there is no sinner, however great a sinner, 
who is lost, if Mary protects him." Again, on page 
21: "I am thine, O Marv : save me." Pasfe 34: 
"We can say of Mary, that she gave her only be- 
gotten Son to die for us, when she granted Him 
permission to deliver Himself up to death." 

On page 53 : " Neither on earth, nor in heaven, 
can I find any one who has more compassion for the 
miserable, and who is better able to assist me, than 
thou canst, O Mary." She is "the only hope for sin- 
ners," it is said, on page 67, "for by her help alone 
can we hope for the remission of sins." Page 67 : 
"He falls, and is lost, who has not recourse to Mary. 
(Where are we all going to?)" Page 84: "Hail, O 
certain salvation of Christians, . . . and salvation 
of the world." Page 85 : "God has placed the whole 
price of redemption in the hands of Mary, that she 
may dispense it as she will. Thou, O Mary, art the 
propitiation for the whole world." Pages 90, 85 : 
"Our only city of refuge : the only Advocate for sin- 
ners : the only hope of sinners.' And later : *0, 
our Lady in heaven, we have but one Advocate, and 



Romanism and the Republic. 339 

that is thyself." Page 98 : * 'Before Mary, there was 
none who could thus dare to restrain the arm of God. 
But now, if God is angry with a sinner, and Mary 
takes him under her protection, she withholds the 
avenging arm of her Son, and saves him." Page 
105 : "I worship thy holy heart : through thee do I 
hope for salvation." And so on : who knows when 
it will end? Page 129 : ''The intercession of Mary 
is ever necessary to salvation." Page 128 : "Mary 
was made the mediatrix of our salvation." Page 
132 : "In Mary we shall find life and eternal salva- 
tion." (I think not.) Page 136: "All gifts, all 
virtues, and all graces are dispensed by Mary, to 
whomsoever, whensoever, and howsoever she pleases/ 
Page 143 : "The way of salvation is open to no one, 
otherwise than through Mary. No one is saved, ex- 
cept through thee." Page 144: "Our salvation is 
in the hands of Mary : . . our salvation depends 
upon thee." Page 251 : "Thou art omnipotent to 
save sinners." Page 230: "Let us, therefore, go 
with boldness to the Throne of grace, that we may 
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. 
The throne of grace is the blessed Virgin Mary. If, 
then, we wish for graces, let us go the throne of 
grace, which is Mary." Then, on page 479, the 
following: " Jesus Himself said: 'Were it not for 
the prayers of my mother, there would be no hope 
of mercy.'" 

That is a lie ; and so is the whole of it. Now, 
concerning the alleged powers of the Virgin Mary, 
just a little further. You read that she is made to 



340 Romanism and the Republic. 

be about all there is in heaven for the hope of sin- 
ners. The Carmelite monks are her special favor- 
ites. Do you want to know why? There is a small 
square piece of cloth devised by the Carmelite monks, 
which is called a scapular. They put one on each 
end of a string, or ribbon, and wear it on their 
shoulders. That is called the scapular of the Car- 
melites. Now the Virgin Mary has special favor 
toward the Carmelite monks ; and it is said that the 
Saturday after a monk dies, she goes down into pur- 
gatory and takes him out. She spends her Saturday 
afternoons that way, according to this declaration. 
Have you seen these Carmelites ? I saw some Car- 
melite monks in Venice and Rome. I remember 
them very well : the vision rises before me now. I 
think they were among the dirtiest of all the monks 
that I ever saw ; and that is saying much. I do not 
see why The Virgin Mary should go to purgatory for 
them : positively, I think that, in the case of those 
whom I saw, a little purgatory would have done 
them good ! 

Now, to close, you remember that I brought 
before you, some time since, the book called 
"Judges of Faith," purchased in a Roman Catholic 
bookstore, sanctioned by three hundred and eighty, 
or more, distinguished dignitaries of the Roman 
Catholic Church ; in which book we found a large 
share of our information about their intentions to- 
wards our public schools. On the 132d page of that 
book it is said, that piety toward the Virgin Mary is 
one of the things that is to be especially taught in 



Romanism and the Republic. 341 

the parochial schools. If I remember correctly, that 
quotation is from the words of the Baltimore Plenary 
Council. Piety to the Virgin Mary is especially to 
be taught in the parochial schools ; I suppose, in the 
one just started in Worcester, and those in Brook- 
field, and in Waltham, and in Boston. What is piety 
to the Virgin Mar}^? We have heard Roman Cath- 
olic answers to that question. I suppose they may 
take Liguori's "Glories of Mary" as one of their 
reading-books, possibly ; and may get not only what 
we read, but a very great deal more of the same 
tenor. Is that education ? 

The Virgin Mary, as you may not know, has been 
made the patroness of America, as St. George is of 
England, St. Andrew of Scotland, St. Patrick of 
Ireland, St. Denis of France, and St. James of Spain. 
The Virgin Mary is to be the patron saint of Ameri- 
cans ; and I suppose, therefore, they would teach 
American youth more about her than they would 
teach youth in any other part of the world. When 
this teaching has been taught, what will bd the 
condition of the mind of those who are so instructed? 
I confess, this whole thing staggers me, as I come 
to see what Rome purposes to teach. 

Some years ago, I read of a company of people, 
in New York, who proposed to revive the old Greek 
idol-worship. We were told that they had secured a 
beautiful marble statue for a divinity, and a little 
band of them had gathered together to worship the 
statue. It was a very strange story, and very 
highly interesting to me ; yet it caused a shudder, 



342 Homanism and the Republic, 

as I thus learned that, even at this late age of 
Gospel civilization, there were yet people in our 
midst who had so forsaken truth and dishonored God 
that they were worshipping idols. And yet, my 
friends, the power that is threatening to dominate 
this country, is a power which does that very thing. 
Last night, a friend, who is very familiar with 
French literature, told me that Victor Hugo once 
wrote a very impressive poem satirizing Romish 
idolatry, developing the following ideas : The poet 
imagines, in this work, that the Lord Jesus Christ, 
in heaven, finds that he is receiving neither prayer 
nor praise. When the Lord observes that neither 
prayer nor praise is sent up to him, he has a feeling 
of loneliness from being neglected, and he says : 
*'Why is this, that I do not hear from earth, either in 
the way of prayer or praise ? I must inquire about 
it. I have a vicegerent down there, whom I have 
appointed, and to whom I have given the power of 
the keys ; and yet I get no words or messages from 
the earth." And so the Lord resolved to descend 
from heaven, and see what was the reason of this 
neo^lect : and he said : ' ' Because I have been on 
earth in the form of a peasant, I shall be best known 
to my church in that form ; and I will thus descend, 
to see why it is." So he came down from the 
heavens, in form as he was in Nazareth and Galilee ; 
and he went to the great city where the Pope, his 
vicegerent, lives ; and beheld the splendor of the pre- 
lates, and the poverty, and vice, and superstition of 
the people ; and when he came to the door of the 



Romanism and the Mepuhlic, 343 

palace there were the Swiss soldiers, in their yellow 
and black uniforms, who denied him admittance. 
They repulsed him rudely. At length he, by some 
means, found his way in, and finally obtained an 
audience with the Pope. No sooner did this humble 
peasant come into the presence of the Pope, who was 
seated on a throne in all the paraphernalia and splen- 
dor of his exalted office, than He was frowned down 
by His own vicar, spoken to in a contemptuous and 
bitter manner, and bidden begone. Upon this, throw- 
ing off His disguise, and assuming the majestic form 
at which all classes of beings tremble, the mighty 
Saviour began to address deserved reproof to this 
usurper, who had taken the place of the true Bishop 
of souls. In terrific words of truth, he told the 
trembling sinner that he was without the spirit of 
the Master ; that he was the plunderer and destroyer 
of souls ; that he was extorting from men a supersti- 
tious and undeserved veneration ; that the prayers 
which should ascend to God in heaven, were stopped 
by saints, and images, and relics, and popes, and 
bishops, on earth ; and that, instead of the ends of 
the great plan of salvation being served, by leading 
men to God, there had been built up a hierarchy as 
selfish as it was hateful, which barred the way to 
heaven. 

The poet-satirist was wholly right in his dream. 
When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven 
with flaming fire, to take vengeance on those who 
know not the Lord, and who have abolished and 
degraded His truth, I believe that His vengeful 



344 Romanism and the Republic, 

lightnings will first strike that usurping power, 
which, in the name of the lowly Jesus, has vaulted 
to the very heights of blasphemy, and has sunk to 
the very depths of superstition. And I hope that 
the American people will see that certain purpose 
of eternal justice soon enough to save themselves 
from the desolation which this curse, this pagan 
curse, has wrought in other lands. 



Sermon IM* 



SOME FUKTHER ASPECTS OF PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 

If you turn to the 60th Psalm, the third and the 
fourth verses, you will find the following words : 
*'Thou hast shewed thy people hard things; thou 
hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. 
Thou hast s^iven a banner to them that fear thee, 
that it may be displayed because of the truth." 

It must be confessed that the stupendous scheme 
of political tyranny which we have been compelled 
to describe from this pulpit in the last three months, 
is an astonishins: thino^ for the Protestant Christian to 
hear, and a hard thing for the American people to 
comprehend. If we may trust their own statements 
and rely on their own utterances, the Pope and the 
hierarchs of the Roman Catholic Church not only 
claim the absolute political allegiance of every person 
throughout the world, but they define themselves as 
irreconcilable enemies of all that our fathers gave 
their lives to purchase, and all that our brothers 
died to preserve. No less true is it that against the 
great institutions of the country, through which is 
diffused the large intelligence necessary for the pre- 
servation of a republic, have they put forth their 



346 Romanism and the Republic, 

utmost strength, and have resolved that Romanism, 
not Americanism, shall be tau2:ht to little children in 
schools. When they have swept away our public 
system of education, they are resolved to teach that 
creed and its practices which I described to you in 
the last three discourses. 

There were many, no doubt, who, listening, said : 
** It is a hard thing, and who can believe that Roman 
Catholic doctors of theology sanction the grossest 
violations of the moral law ; that they teach the peo- 
ple absolute paganism and idolatry ; that they are at 
least nineteen hundred years behind the spirit and 
doctrine of Protestant New England, in the type of 
religion which they teach? " It is a hard thing ; and 
we have "drunk the wine of astonishment " while 
we have considered these discourses wdiich have 
brouo:ht it to our attention. But in the face of such 
facts, is anything truer than the second verse of this 
text, that if God has committed any trust to intelli- 
gent men, He has intrusted us with a banner by 
which to represent His truth, an uplifted symbol of 
our antagonism to all that enslaves the human mind, 
and corrupts the morals of society. Can there be any 
doubt as to whether God has given us a banner to 
display in the face of such an assailant ? Is it doubt- 
ful whether it is a Christian minister's duty, or a 
Christian patriot's obligation, to confront this organ- 
ized tyranny which is threatening to subvert our 
liberties and our laws? I think there can be no 
doubt. 

What, then, is the banner that we have been 



Romanism and the^Repuhlic, 347 

entrusted to hold up? what is the symbol that 
we display in the face of a foe who always displays 
the black flag of intolerance ? what banner do we 
advance in the face of the Roman Catholic Church, as 
it marches from out the centuries where it has trod- 
den down the nations in blood, to add another to its 
list of prostrate peoples? I answer, that we elevate a 
double symbol : the banner that we rear in the name 
of patriotism, is the flag of a free Republic ; the stand- 
ard which we present to them in the name of truth 
and religion, is the open Word of God. No hatred 
soils that flag ; no malignity disfigures that page. 
And while they blaze with excommunications and 
avowed hate ; while their instruments of torture are 
red with the best blood of all nations ; we challenge 
them with a flag which forbids slavery, and a book 
that has never sanctioned superstition ! 

It seems a necessity at this time, as we move for- 
ward in the line of argumentativ^e conflict under such 
standards, that we should gather up some of those 
truths which are likely to have been dropped out and 
forgotten in a discussion so protracted and one 
involving so many particulars ; and because I do not 
wish to leave the subject of parochial schools without 
saying some things that I have not yet said, I propose 
to-night to recur to that, a little out of the general 
progress of the discourses, rather than to neglect 
some really important phases of the subject. While 
it is true that everything that I have said in the last 
three months bears directly upon their effort to sub- 
vert public education, what I shall say to-night is 
specially upon that design. 



348 Romanism and the Republic. 

In a connection that will, I hope, make these 
practical suggestions of value, I beg you to attend 
first to the fact, that the ao^itation asfainst iVnierican 
schools, which we are now forced to consider, is 
solely the work of the priests, and not of the laity of 
the Roman Catholic Church. From first to last 

it is the attack of ecclesiastics and not of laymen. 
The authorities which I have cited to you, so adverse 
to our public schools, are popes, cardinals, bishops 
and priests ; but I have not cited to you from the 
Roman Catholic Church, one lawyer, one physician, 
one man of business, one merchant, one teacher. It 
is therefore obvious to you, that the authorities, at 
least those we have presented for the assault on pub- 
lic education in the form that we have it, are priestly 
authorities, not lay authorities. Indeed, it is evident 
that the laity of the Roman Catholic Church have not 
been consulted about this matter. When were they 
ever consulted about any matter that had been 
resolved upon by priestly power? 

The Roman Catholic people, many of them, object 
to being dragged into a position of hostility to our 
schools ; they insist on keeping their children in the 
common sohools, for a time at least ; occasionally 
also, there is even a priest who favors public schools. 
But whether or not they insist on keeping their 
children in our schools, they are being driven, under 
the lash of priestly despotism, to take them out 
of those schools. I regard this as a very significant 
impression to be left on the mind of every intelligent 
American hearer, that this is not an attack of the 



Homanism and the Hepuhlic. 349 

people, who are deriving benefits from our public 
schools, upon them ; it is not a revolt against our sys- 
tem of public education by those who have enjoyed 
the benefits of that system ; bat it is an onslaught of 
solely clerical tyrants upon the freedom of the peo- 
ple, and upon the freedom of America ; and those 
tyrants wear the priestly gown, the bishop's mitre, 
and the papal tiara. 

There have recently appeared in the New York 

Independent a series of very remarkable articles, 

written by a Roman Catholic layman. The editors 

of the New York Independent slvg known to me, as no 

doubt they are to many of you ; and while the paper 

has a very high character, the editors have an even 

higher character, if that were possible. These 

gentlemen have vouched for the fact that this writer 

is a layman of the Roman Catholic Church ; and he, in 

speaking of the relation of the laity to the Church, 

uses, in the issue of October 11 , the following words : 

*' One cause, and I believe the principal cause, of the 

failure of the Roman Catholic Church to maintain a 

continued hold of the love and devotion of the people 

of any country, has been the complete isolation of the 

interests of the laity. The Roman Catholic papers 

are full of complaints of the indifference of the laity 

to Roman Catholic interests. If these papers are 

to be taken as true witnesses in their own case, this 

indifference exists to an extraordinary extent even in 

this country, and it is not a ' note ' of ecclesiastical 

advancement. Now, there must be a cause for this 

indifference, and we have some personal knowledge 



350 Homanism and the Hepuhlic. 

of this cause." He goes on and discusses at length 
the reason wliy the laity of the Roman Catholic 
Church are in a condition of bewilderment and indiffer- 
ence, scarcely knowing what to do, and in course of 
that discussion uses the followino^ lanojuao:e : " Now 
what is true of the general public and the influence 
of the Pope on national politics, is true of the power 
and influence of every bishop and priest in local poli- 
tics. As members of an infallible body, they are 
practically infallible ; as members of the most power- 
ful combination on earth, their power to control the 
Catholic laity is unlimited. If the commands of the 
Pope must be obeyed by all nations and rulers at the 
risk of eternal loss, the commands of the priests are 
practically, if not equally, binding; or to all pur- 
poses quite as effectually binding. Hence if the Pope 
can change the policy of a king or emperor, the 
bishop can change the policies and purposes of the 
mayor or aldermen." And then he adds : "The Roman 
Catholic laity have come to know this very well ; 
hence their marked unwillingness to interfere in any 
affair whatever which is in any Way under ecclesias- 
tical control ; and what is there that is not so con- 
trolled? Nor are they willing to place themselves 
in any position where they may be made to feel the 
weight of the ecclesiastical arm. A priest, consciously 
or unconsciously, uses his spiritual powers to attain 
his temporal ends ; if he did not, he would be more 
than human." 

He then proceeds to speak of the fact that the 
Polish Roman Catholics in the city of Chicago have 



Romanism and the Hepublic, 351 

revolted against their priests because of the priests' 
attempted dominance over them in all minute affairs. 
This is what they say in their declaration addressed 
to the Pope : ** The priests want to control the pri- 
vate, as well as the religious, affiiirs of their parish- 
ioners, and render them virtually slaves to do their 
bidding, and failing in this, the priests have maligned 
members of the Alliance, and sought to create preju- 
dice against them. The petitioners represent that 
they are time Catholics ; do not belong to any 
socialistic, nihilistic or anarchistic orsfanization ; 
and in everything have deported themselves as true 
sons of the Church." The spirit of Sobieski, who 
labored to achieYe universal liberty, has not wholly 
died out of Polish Roman Catholics ; and it 
seems that they, in the city of Chicago, have lifted 
up their voices in protest against having the priest- 
hood push them on to a position which they deprecate, 
denounce and reject. Furthermore, we have here a 
statement from a Roman Catholic layman in the 
South, as follows : "A Southern gentleman, whose 
opinion would command extraordinary respect if I 
could give his name, said, not long since : '* We (the 
laity) have given up all interest in church affairs. 
We do whatever we believe to be necessary 
to save our souls, and we attend to our own 
business. Several times when we have tried to 
interest the Bishop in plans which we believed would 
greatly benefit the Church and advance the interests 
of reliijion, Ave found our su2:2restions were not taken 
in good part, and were, in fact, considered as imper- 



352 Itomanis7n and the Republic. 

tine lit intrusion : and we heard so much of humility 
and obedience that we determined for the future to 
withdraw altogether from Church affairs. The 
Koman Catholic Church in the South," continues this 
representative Roman Catholic, *' is dying of dry 
rot : we have indifferent bishops, who are scarcely 
ever seen by their people, and who do not care in the 
least to consider any plan which they have not sug- 
gested themselves ; and who only express an interest 
in the laity when they want to get money." If this 
is a representative utterance of the intelligent laity 
of the Roman Catholic Church (and it comes cer- 
tainly from that source), then we have additional 
proof that the laity, the main body of the Church, are 
not interested in the overthrow of our system of pub- 
lic education. 

It simplifies matters somewhat, if we find that we 
are only fighting gowned priests in this matter. If the 
Roman Catholic people are being bullied and driven in- 
to a position of hostility that they do not desire to take, 
then, O my brothers, let us try with all our might, to 
give them that moral sympathy, that enlightenment 
and that help, which will make a clear division 
between them and their oppressors, and will save to 
America and to patriotism the warm-hearted Irish- 
men and Frenchmen who are now being forced, by 
priestly and foreign power, into antagonism to their 
own best interests and the nation's welfare. 

Now, although the laity are not consulted, the 
vast cost of those schools is lo be borne by the laity, 
not by the priesthood. The founding of parochial 



Romanism and the Rejpuhtic. 353 

schools involves a very large expense : that expense 
is to be met by the people, not by the priests. The 
priests have no interests particularly in popular 
education. I mean they have no families ; they have 
no recognized children that are to attend these 
schools. Many of them live in luxury, and have 
few cares, except their churchly cares. You very 
rarely hear of their giving large subscriptions for the 
promotion of parochial education. While I was 
visiting a little town in Connecticut, a man told me 
that, on a recent occasion, there came ten priests to a 
funeral, (I suppose of a priest-) ; and he said, after the 
funeral the ten priests went to a hotel and had a 
dinner ; that the proprietor of the hotel said he never 
had a company in his house who made such epicurean 
demands as these. They called for all the best liquors 
in his cellar ; they drank most freely ; and they were 
exceedingly hilarious. They sang indecent songs 
and told immodest stories, until he was glad to have 
them leave his house ; but they made a very large 
bill, which they paid; and I suppose the publican 
who would sell rum, would not much object to the 
circumstances under which the sale was effected. 

The priests are not all used to luxury. Many of 
them are noble, self-denying men ; but the priests 
who control the great parishes of cities where the 
parochial schools are being founded, are not denying 
themselves for the sake of getting adequate funds to 
build up these schools. The people have to furuish 
the money. 

We have pictures of extortion by priests drawn by 



354 Romanism and the R&public. 

their own laymen. I have been told in this very 
cit^s by a man who knew the facts, in whose word I 
can have only confidence, and a Roman Catholic, of 
the priest's habit of going up and down the aisle him- 
self and taking the collection ; not because there was 
no one else able to take it, but because, in the arro- 
gance of his })riestly power, he compelled men to give 
who otherwise would have refused. We have a case 
not long ago, in a Massachusetts' town, where, when 
a man declined to give as the priest presented the 
box, the priest took off his priestly robe, and pro- 
posed to throw the man out of doors, and actually 
forced him out of the church, because he declined to 
contribute. 

This is the position of the priests ; but what is the 
condition of the people? We have the same author- 
ity in the New York Independent of Sept. 27, giv- 
ing us an idea of what is being done to oppress the 
people in the matter of acquiring funds. It is an 
article entitled: ** Is the Roman Catholic Church 
Advancino^?" He says : " Its numerical streno:th is 
the great point made by Catholics, when they wish 
to impress on their own minds, or on the minds of 
others, the great power of the Church in this coun- 
try. And so far, the numerical strength of the 
Roman Catholics in America has told, beyond all 
doubt, in politics. But what is the real, rather we 
should say, what is the spiritual value of this prepon- 
derating influence ? Is it to lessen crime ? Is it to 
lessen suffering? Has it elevated the moral or intel- 
lectual condition of the masses in New York ? He 



Romanism and the Republic, 355 

would be a bold man who dared to say, in the face 
of facts, that the Roman Catholic Church has been 
a pow^erful influence for good in that city." 

If I should talk so about Cono^reoationalism in this 
city, and if I had justifiable occasion so to talk, you 
would think that there was certainly need of a great 
reform in that body. Thank God I it can never be 
said of any Protestant denomination of which I know, 
that its presence is a moral curse. " But what solid 
foundation lies underneath?" he asks. "The 
Churches are inagnificent, and costly, and heavily 
burdened with debt ; but few are consecrated, though 
they are built for many years. Is this creditable to 
ecclesiastical management, or to religion? The poor 
are heavily, I might almost say cruelly taxed to pay 
these debts, or rather to pay the heavy mortgages on 
these churches, and with little hope of reprieve." 
And then he goes on to state, that Father Colton, the 
successor of Dr. McGlynn, at the Church of St. 
Stephen, where there is now a debt of $140,000, 
proposes to add $60,000 to the debt, in order that he 
may erect a parochial school, and adds, that Father 
Colton is being very much praised for so doing ; 
while he continues: "As in the case of Dr. 
McGlynn's successor, each new priest must do some 
new work to get credit for his zeal. But all this is 
done at the expense of the poor of his parish. The 
priest gets all the honor and the poor get all the bur- 
den." He then quotes the Freeman\s Journal as 
declaring " that Father Colton is quite cheerful about 
it, and he well may be, considering that not one 



356 Romanism and the Republic, 

penny of the expense will come out of his pocket, 
and that he will get all sorts of ecclesiastical and 
episcopal honor and glory for using other people's 
money." 

There is another little fras^ment here that he intro- 
duces from the Freeman's Journal, a bit of supersti- 
tious fraud, which is so good a morsel you must have 
the benefit of it. The statement of the editor of the 
Freeman^s Journal is amusing in more ways than 
one, and we give it here. He says : "St. Joseph is 
a rich and powerful friend " (that is, the husband of 
The Virgin Mary), " who has often proved himself a 
benefactor to others, even in darker hours than now, 
frequently causing magnificent churches, convents, 
and other institutions to rise seemingly out of noth- 
ing, as in the case of the splendid building erected 
by the late Rev. Father Dromgoole, in this city 
(known as the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, 
but erected by the St. Joseph's Union through the 
medium of twenty-five-cent subscriptions), at a cost 
of over $300,000, not including the property on 
Staten Island ; which, with other expenditures, would 
bring the total cost up to about half a million of 
dollars. Would it not be well to try some special 
devotion to St. Joseph with the above intention ; 
such, for instance, as keeping a light burning con- 
stantly before his statue until the debt is paid?" 
And the Roman Catholic layman comments as fol- 
lows : " Well, if burning candles to St. Joseph will 
pay the debt, by all means let them be burned. But 
we fear the poor Irish servant girls of the parish will 



Romanism and the Hepublic, S57 

have a good deal more to do with the payment than 
St. Joseph, and that it will remain for another pastor 
to increase." 

This, from an inside standpoint, shows us where 
the money is coming from that is demanded in such 
vast sums for the purpose of creating parochial 
schools. The people have to find that. There are many 
in this con£:reo:ation who have had their servant ffirls 
come home and say they must have another fifty cents 
or another dollar a "week. Now you are not unwilling 
that wages should be raised in proportion to service 
rendered, but if you happen to overhear the arrange- 
ment being made between the Sister of Charity soli- 
citing, and the servant girl, by which the additional 
wages are to go into the treasury of the Church, you 
may naturally object ; not but what you want your 
servant to have adequate wages, but you do not par- 
ticularly feel under obligations to build the palaces 
of bishops and parochial schools. 

This question of the wages of the Roman Catholic 
is an interesting question. You might raise the 
wages of the Roman Catholic people as high as it 
were possible, and they would be just as poor as 
they are now. Why? Because their surplus is 
grasped by the rapacity of priests, for the pur- 
pose of erecting splendid churches and parochial 
schools, and for increasing the luxury of the priests. 
Sometimes our Protestant Christian people say : " Oh, 
how Romanists raise money. I wish that we could 
raise money as they do." God forbid ! God forbid ! 
If we raised money as they do, we would be no more 



358 Romanism and the Republic. 

a Christian Church. They raise money by all sorts 
of oppression and threats. Aye, some of them frighten 
even you, when they threaten. There came into 
the store of a friend of mine the other day solicitors for 
a Roman Catholic fair. They insisted that he should 
give something. He said: " Gentlemen, I have noth- 
ing to give for that purpose ;" whereupon the repre- 
sentatives of the Papacy said : *' Well, if you do not 
give, we will boycott your store ;" and he said, in 
effect: ** Go and do it; go now!" He emphasized 
the now, and they went. There is a merchant in 
this city who, under similar circumstances, being 
asked to give to a Roman Catholic fair, was told if 
he did not give to their Church they would not trade 
with him. He said : " I do not do business in that 
way : I shall give nothing ! " I am thankful to say 
that this store-keeper is prosperous yet. Within 
the last week I have been told that if I were 
a merchant I should not dare to say what 
I am saying, because the Romanists would bo}^- 
cott me. Thank Heaven ! I am not in any position to 
fear the threats of Rome. My support depends on 
Christians and freemen ; not on slaves, or creatures 
of Romish priests. 

There is a great amount of Protestant money put 
into these schools and into these churches that ought 
not to go there. Father O'Connor said to me, in 
New York, the other day : " You are reaping in New 
England what you have sown. You have made the 
Roman Catholic Church what it is. You have given 
the money to build their churches ; you have given 



Romanism and the Republic. 359 

the money to build their schools ; and now they turn 
and try to destroy you. You have warmed the 
viper in your bosom," said he, " that now is trying 
to sting you to death." He spoke the truth. We 
know that he spoke the truth. Business men have 
stopped me on the street in this city, and said : 
"What is our duty in regard to this matter of giving 
money so that it goes into the treasury of the Roman 
Catholic Church ?" I say : " It is your duty not to give 
a dollar ; any more than you would have bought the 
bonds of the Southern Confederacy, when Jefferson 
Davis, at its head, was trying to ruin the country. 
Not a dollar, not a penny, for Romanism in America, 
from Protestant hands and pockets ! If that policy 
were adopted, it would make a vast difference to the 
strength of this enemy of freedom. Thus the people 
have to furnish the money, and I have already inti- 
mated that the Protestant people are furnishing too 
large a part of it. This brings me to another very 
interesting aspect of this matter of parochial schools. 
There is a very large amount of Protestant 
money invested in Roman Catholic Churches and in 
Roman Catholic schools. You know that they have 
erected maonificent churches in almost everv city. 
These churches cannot be consecrated until they are 
free from debt. The Roman Catholic layman from 
whom I have just read, says, that there are almost 
no Roman Catholic churches in New York that are 
consecrated. I was told by a Roman Catholic gentle- 
man in this city, that probably not one of the Roman 
Catholic churches in this city had been consecrated. 



360 Momanism and the Rejpuhlic. 

That is, because there are heavy mortgages on this 
property. But who has mortgaged this property? 
who holds it, and owns it? Here is an interestins; 
question. If any Protestant church desires to secure 
money on mortgage, it has a perfectly legal way of 
proceeding, by which the corporate body, that 
is the entire society, or its representative legal cor- 
poration, incurs and becomes responsible for the 
debt. Sometimes money is obtained for a Protes- 
tant church by means of an individual becoming 
responsible ; and it is the law in some States, that 
trustees who are on the paper of a church when 
the debt is incurred, cannot take their names off that 
paper so long as the debt stands, because they are 
held personally responsible. Now who holds the 
property of Roman Catholic churches? and who 
mortgages that property ? 

Not Roman Catholic laymen, whose labor and 
money must pay the mortgage. All the property of 
the Roman Catholic Church in a diocese is held by 
the bishop, and in the bishop's name. I think that 
is so in the State of Massachusetts. I was looking 
up the law ; and, as nearly as I can see, that is the 
universal law of Roman Catholics, and the law in 
this State. Yery good. Who is the person that 
owns the Roman Catholic churches of Worcester? 
The men who built them ? the men who worship in 
them ? the men whose wages and whose money have 
gone into them? No; but a stranger, whom they 
call **My Lord," and who lives somewhere else. 

Is he responsible, financially, to such an extent 



Romanism and the Republic . 361 

that it is wise for banks to loan vast sums of money 
on Roman Catholic property ? Whose money is this 
which is loaned? Suppose the bishop should say, as 
he might say ; "We default on these mortgages," and 
the property were thrown on the market, who would 
buy it? Those whose money was there, would lose 
almost every dollar of it. And suppose that the 
bishop was an honest man, but that the Pope should 
send out word to America, where these mort2:ao'es 
are so plentiful, "I protest against your paying the 
heretics their money ; " every bishop would obey his 
command, on penalty of perdition. We may be 
exceedingly capable in the management of our busi- 
ness, and our banks may be shrewd and wise ; but 
when I mark the conspiracy of Romanism against 
property, and against nationality, and against intelli- 
gence, and against everything non-Romanist, then, I 
say. Gentlemen, in managing your business, it seems 
to me it would be well to understand who is going 
to pay the mortgages that are on these vast prop- 
erties, and by which parochial schools are being 
created. Do you say. The Roman Catholic people are 
going to pay them? If I were in their place, I 
would not pay a dollar ; and I shall do all I can to 
create a revolt amonsr them as^ainst this lavish and 

o o 

wicked expense, which they did not create nor con- 
sent to, and which they ought not to pay. But you 
say : The bishops are honest, and they will pay. Well, 
their moral theologians, St. Liguori, Peter Dens, 
J. P. Gury and others, concerning whom and from 
whose works I have read to you here, are the 



362 Romanism, and the JRepublic. 

teachers of bishops ; and if the bishops choose to 
follow their moral standards, they can repudiate 
every dollar, and not feel one qualm of conscience. 
Suppose they should follow their moral theologians, 
and do it. I do not say that they will ; but I say, 
that if I had money to lend I would not lend it to 
them, with the risks that are involved, and the moral 
principles that they teach. 

Now, while thus impoverishing the people, 
they do not take care of those whom they rob ; that 
is certain. I find here a statement, in this same 
article, by the Roman Catholic layman, that the 
Roman Catholic Irish in this country embrace '*a 
few millionaires, a host of politicians, and a vast 
population of thriftless, shiftless, ill-cared-for people. 
Better, a thousand times better, that these people 
should be back in the bogs of Connemara, with their 
pure, fresh air, and their pure, fresh life, than in the 
crime-haunted liquor saloons of New York and Bos- 
ton. Millions of Irish Catholics have fled to America ; 
and when one thinks of their miserable state in this 
country, it is hard to feel that the Head of the Church, 
whom they support so loyally, has not one word to 
say to stop this bleeding of the nation — this destroy- 
ing of a people, who have loved him, one might dare 
to say, 'not wisely, but too well.'" 

While they furnish hosts of pauperized people, 
and apply the moneys that they extort to building 
up their ecclesiastical institutions, they do not take 
care of the poor whom they make. 

Go to the Roman Catholics countries of the woi'ld, 



Romanism and the Republic, 363 

and you are beset by myriads of beggars. Of those 
who live at the public expense in this country, we 
know that a very considerable proportion are Roman 
Catholics. Why do they not take care of the poor 
whom they make poor ? I will tell you why. Because 
they expect you to do it ; and you do it. No mat- 
ter how much they may plunder them, you support 
the plundered masses of the Roman Catholic Church. 
Did you ever have a beggar come to your door, who 
impressed you as being altogether worthy of help, 
and whom you found to be a Roman Catholic ? Did 
you ever say to such, '' Go to jo\xv priest ! Why do 
you come to me, a Protestant minister? Go ask 
your priest for help ! " I have done so ; and did they 
ever go to their priest ? Never. Why not ? Be- 
cause they knew they would not get anything from 
him, if they did go. I do not say that some of the 
priests of the Roman Catholic Church are not gene- 
rous, self-denying men. I believe they are. I speak 
now of the generality — of the class — and I say, that 
I have never been able, in dealing with the poor of 
great cities, — I have never been able, when I visited 
them in their s^arrets and cellars, to o^et them to qo 
and apply for charity to their own priests. W^hy 
not? The priests are spending their mone}^ in build- 
ing up the hierarchy, and we are caring for their 
poor. Nothwithstanding all this — and all this is true 
and well known — the plundered people still give to 
these schools, and yield to priests their money to put 
into them. 

Yeu say, Why do th^y not revolt? Why do 



364 Romanism and the Republic. 

they not come out and deny the right of the priests 
to rob them ? We cannot hope that they will do that 
at present. I do not see any signs of general revolt. 
There is great unrest ; and Father O'Connor said to 
me, he knew a thousand priests that would gladly 
break away from Eome to-day. They are full of 
unrest; but the likelihood of a present revolt from 
the demands of Eome is not great. And why do I 
so conclude? It is because, although they resist and 
curse, they yield? Did not a gentleman say to me, 
in this city, that his servant girl came home, swear- 
ing and cursing? (Of course, that is according to 
the practice of the Roman Catholic Church : the 
Popes are distinguished for cursing.) And the lady 
of the house said, "What is the matter?" And the 
girl, swearing at the priest, calling him bad names, 
said he had demanded of her so much a week, and 
she swore she would not pay it. A month from that 
time she was still swearing ; but she had paid it. 
That is the way they do. 

As an illustration of the manner in which they 
yield to the Papal power, ultimately, — yield under 
pressure — yield by force of education and training — 
we have a most graphic illustration in the present 
paralysis of Irishmen concerning Home Rule in Ire- 
land. We cannot recall that too often. A little 
while ago, this city was full of agitation concerning 
Ireland : the air was full of it ; the papers were full 
of it. Home Rule was the great cry : it was almost 
as prominent as the Tariff is now. Then came the 
rescript from the Pope, who has been the enemy of 



Romanism and the Republic. 365 

Ireland from the first. I have in my possession a 
book, given me by an ex-priest, written by a man 
trained a Roracan Catholic, a judge of the Supreme 
Court of California. He sets forth the fact, from 
Romish sources, that since the day when the Pope of 
Rome gave up Ireland to be ruled and plundered by 
the King of England, — from that day to this, at 
least five or six times, the Pope has interfered when 
Ireland was on the verge of gaining liberty, taking 
sides with her tyrants ; and prevented her progress 
into a better national life. Irishmen ought to know 
that, and some of them do know it. 

Full of burning enthusiasm and energy, the Irish- 
men were talking and giving, when, all of a sudden, 
the man whom they call the "vicar of Christ," in 
Rome, spoke. Their hands dropped powerless and 
paralyzed. My friends, if my heart is not touched, 
and I cannot say that it is, there is a little corner of 
my mind which is partly filled with anxiety to know 
what will happen to those agile American politicians 
who, a little while ago, so carried Ireland on their 
hearts, that in their agonized interests over '' Home 
Rule," you would have supposed, from great senators 
down to ward politicians, that the dearest interest 
of their lives was the state of Ireland. Since the 
Pope has spoken, they, with their dupes, have been 
in the condition that the farmer's boys put the 
young turkeys in at Thanksgiving time ; when they 
seize them by the neck, and hold them so tight that, 
though their mouths are open, they can make no 
sound. So the Pope has seized our politicians, 
senators and all, by the neck. I listen to hear that 



366 Romanism and the Republic. 

cr}^ of *«HomeEule for Ireland." I listen to hear 
a peep, if I cannot hear a cry ; but silence reigns 
around. I should think they would burst in their 
agony, because they cannot speak. No ; all are silent. 
The Roman Catholic editors are silent. The Roman 
Catholic priests are silent. Even the Roman Catholic 
bummers are silent. And down under them, in a 
lower grade, the American politician is silent. So 
when you ask me why it is that the Romanists do 
not break away from the power of Rome, when they 
know that they are being plundered for measures 
they have not sanctioned, I ask you, why New 
England men here in Worcester have been muzzled 
by the Pope, and speak or keep silent at his com- 
mand ? I can pity the Irish Roman Catholic ; but I 
can only despise the American politician. 

There are those who, at this great juncture of 
public affairs, do precisely what such men have done 
in all exigencies of public affairs, who say that 
*' all this agitation is premature; the time has not 
come for it. Better not say it." Did I hear any 
pulpit in Worcester say that, when speaking of us? 
I think I did. " It is true ; but better not say it." 
So they said when Patrick Henry, in the House of 
Burgesses, in Virginia, while George III. was 
oppressing the colonies, cried: " Csesar had his 
Brutus, Charles I. his Cromwell, and George the 
Third" (then they cried " Treason, Treason" all about 
the house : it was premature, this agitation; but 
that man of thunder hurled out his final word) " and 
George III. should profit by such examples." The 



Romanism and the Republic, 367 

men that dare to be called "premature" in agitating 
great interests, are the men that we must look to for 
leadership. Were not Samuel Adams and James 
Otis called premature in their agitation in the Revo- 
lutionary days? Were not Garrison and Phillips a 
little premature in forcing the barbarism of slavery 
on an unwilling country? Were they not? Are 
'those who deprecate agitation to consent to have 
the millions plundered and the nation threatened? 

Nor can we trust for leadership those who say out 
of their sentiment and kind feeling : " I dislike very 
much to make an attack on anybody, because I have 
friends who are Roman Catholics, and it disturbs 
me exceedingly to think that anything should be said 
detrimental to them." My friends, I have never said 
a word from this pulpit against Roman Catholics as 
men, and never shall ; but if I should cease to speak 
against the machinations of the Romish hierarchy, I 
pray that God may let me die before my shame 
becomes known to freemen. 

I know men who sell liquor who are gentlemen in 
their manner, beneficent in their gifts, in their social 
life are delightful, and educated intellectually. 
Because of my friendship for those men, am I to be 
silent about the curse of the saloon ? We knew 
men years ago who were slave-holders, who said that 
they deprecated all the dreadful things of slave hold- 
ino' as much as we did. Because I shake hands with 
the lily-fingered slave holder, should I lose by that 
grip all the muscle which should break a shackle and 
free a man ? I look on the Roman Catholic people 



368 Homanism and the Republic, 

of this city and of the world with kindness. Even 
their priests are not the objects of my dislike in any 
degree. But because I have a priest a friend, or a 
layman a friend, shall I therefore permit them and 
the nation to be trampled down for lack of a brave 
word ? 

My friends, we cannot look to timid sentimental- 
ists or begging politicians to lead us. We want 
leaders : whom shall we look to ? Let us do as men 
have always had to do, who had heard God's call to 
duty. Let us look to our God and to ourselves, and 
do our duty without any other leadership, rather 
than wait to follow blind leaders of the blind. 

As an illustration of the want of leadership in 
this matter, let me call your attention to a very inter- 
esting fact. There is a law in this country forbidding 
the importation of contract labor. There is great 
zeal in enforcing that law, on the part of officials 
generally. This law was made, I suppose, in the 
interests ( ?) of the voter, and I suppose very largely 
in the interests of the foreign voter : they who rose 
up and said. You have imported enough, now wait 
and give us a chance. And our subservient legisla- 
tures said. No more contract labor imported. How 
is that law applied? Not long since, the Rev. Mr. 
Berry was called to Plymouth church, Brooklyn. 
If he had come, he would have been compelled to 
pay a fine of $1,000 to the United States government, 
because he came under contract. The Rev. Dr. 
Warren was called to Trinity Church, New York, 
the richest Episcopalian Church in America : he was 



Romanism and the Republic. 369 

sued because he came over under contract and was 
adjudged to pay a fine of $1,000. What have we seen 
here in Worcester ? We have a parochial school formed 
here, and as far as the chain of testimony is known to 
me, we have the following facts : We have four 
Irish Brothers imported from across the sea to teach 
us — what ? To teach us how to be like Ireland ? I 
hope not. How did they come? I am told by those 
who read the Eoman Catholic papers, that it was 
announced at a certain time, that a priest in this city 
was ofoino^ to Ireland to o^et such men. It was 
afterwards announced that he had gone to Ire- 
land to get such men. Then it was reported 
that he had secured such men ; and the next 
thing we knew, the men were in our midst. 
Now the law of the United States says, that whether 
contract be expressed or implied, if these men come 
for their board, or come for ten thousand a year, it 
makes no difference. If they are engaged for ser- 
vice beforehand, then it is violation of the law of 
contract labor. Why does not some lawyer in this 
assembly rise up and test the law? Why does not 
the District Attorney find out whether the occupation 
of the teachers of this city has been put in jeopardy 
b}^ having teachers imported in violation of the law 
of contract labor ? Why do not the teachers coml)ine 
to press the case, and learn their rights under the law ? 
Surely, it is much better to have honest and compe- 
tent workmen brought here under contract, than men 
sworn to a foreio-n allesfiance, to teach hatred of 
American liberty and free institutions. 



370 Romanism and the Republic, 

A gardener coming, not long ago, I think, for a 
gentleman in Massachusetts, a nice Scotchman, a 
clean, fine man, was sent back because he came under 
contract. Why not an emissary of the Italian prince- 
pope ? It might not be best for a minister to prose- 
cute this matter personally, perhaps ; for he does not 
wish to be too much entangled with the affairs of the 
world ; but if any man here is a lawyer, or a teacher, 
or a business-man, and interested in the law of con- 
tract labor, why, gentlemen, you have my permis- 
sion, you have my sanction and my benediction, if 
you will find out whether that law has been violated 
by having those men imported hither ; and we would 
be very glad to have you take up an evening on this 
platform in reporting the results of your investiga- 
tions, if it seemed best. But I am compelled to 
draw to a close. 

There are two or three remarks, however, 
that ought to be made, before we part with this sub- 
ject of parochial schools. They have a practical 
bearing on the matter, and I think that they will so 
impress you. Suppose all the Roman Catholic chil- 
dren are taken out of our schools and put in paro- 
chial schools, to be taught according to the standards 
and purposes of the Roman Catholic Church. They 
are not going to get the same kind of education that 
is received outside those schools. If they were 
to receive the same kind of education afforded by 
oar schools, then they would not be taken from our 
schools. We are to have, then, on the one hand, 
American education. — for the public schools are not 



Homanism and the Republic. 371 

sectarian, in any sense — and, on the other hand, Ro- 
man Catholic education. All denominations of Chris- 
tians, and people not Christians, send their children 
to the public schools ; and they are taught according 
to the general standards of truth on which this nation 
exists. In this camp, then, you have American edu- 
cation : in that, you have Roman Catholic education. 
Now, do you not see that, from their earliest child- 
hood, the children are to be brought into hostility 
and antagonism to one another? For, while the 
children of the public schools may cherish a mag- 
nanimous feeling^ toward those of the Roman Catholic 
schools, you know that Romish education is never 
magnanimous — never. You remember the charming 
talk we had the other Sunday morning from the Rev. 
Mr. Beaudry, wiio said to me (speaking of his early 
education) : *'My mother, who was a saint, told me 
the following, when I was a child : She said, 'Martin 
Luther was so bad a man that, before he died, the 
fires of hell burned within him. They burned so 
fiercely that he would shriek and scream with anguish 
because of their flame and heat. He used to be 
put,' said my mother, 'in a tub of cold water, and 
the water, in a few moments, would boil around him, 
because of the fires of hell that were in him.'" And 
he said : ''I believed that, and was trained up in 
that belief; and Luther and Lucifer were inter- 
changeable terms in my early thought." Now, he 
told this, as being a matter of education in his early 
life and experience. 



372 Romanism and the Repuhlic. 

This gentlemanly man who stood here, who was 
converted after nearly three years' study of the 
Holy Scriptures, said that was what he was taught. 
Do you not see that, if any approximation to that is 
taught, — if the history which Rome teaches and 
tolerates is taught, — we are to have hostile camps of 
American citizens growing up ; or rather, American 
citizens on the one side, and devotees of Rome on 
the other? What does that promise for the future 
of the nation ? I see in it only threatenings of evil. 
But in Roman Catholic schools, it is possible that the 
study of history may be forbidden. 

An ex-Roman Catholic, writing in the Oongrega- 
tionalist of September 27, states the following : "In 
Ireland, where priestly power is supreme, no history 
is allowed to be taught. The children maybe taught 
anything — Greek and Latin roots, algebra, chemistry 
— everything, in fact, except history : but history 
and the Bible are forbidden. Are the rising gene- 
rations of the American children to be forbidden the 
knowledge of history as it is, or of the Bible? The 
Bible is forbidden : is history to be forbidden also ?" 
I am told that the History substituted for S win ton's 
in Boston, leaves out the mention of Indulgences as 
one of the causes of the Reformation. Is that his- 
tory which suppresses fact? Is that history which 
leaves out truth ? Is that what children are to be 
taught ? Are facts to be left out, until only so much 
remains as will indorse Romanism? If so, all will 
be left out; for there is no history that indorses 



Romanism and the Republic. 373 

Romanism, so far as I have ever been able to find 
or read. 

Finally, we are told that some of our schoolhouses 
in this State are almost empty now ; and we are con- 
fronted with the practical fact, that so largely have 
the parochial schools drawn on the attendance at these 
schools, that now there is no need of those buildinofs 
for school purposes. They stand empty. Confronted 
with such a problem, what are we to do with those 
buildings? I have a little plan in my mind, which I 
think would work well. There is a good deal said 
now about industrial education ; and in those build- 
ings, by means of the lathe, the chisel and the brush, 
I would teach the young to earn their living by cun- 
ning handicraft and skill. And, my friends, I would 
turn some of those empty school-buildings into refor- 
matories and penal institutions ; and I would see that 
they were provided with proper guardians and over- 
seers ; and that truth, morality, and righteousness 
were taught in them. And if we should turn these 
empty school-buildings into reformatory institutions, 
and put over them proper persons, I think it is pretty 
certain that we should have a very considerable per 
centage of the attendants at parochial schools back 
in them after a very short time. 



Sermon IIEE 



THE ROMISH CONFESSIONAL: WHAT IT IS, AND 
WHAT IT DOES. 

**And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our 
debtors. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, 
your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if 
ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your 
Father forgive your trespasses." Gospel according 
to St. Matthew, 6th chapter, 12, 14 and 15 verses. 
Also in the Epistle of St. James, 5th chapter, 16th 
verse ; "Confess your faults one to another, and pray 
one for another, that ye may be healed." 

In the presence of the great God against whom 
we have all sinned, and in whose sight we have all 
done evil, we solemnly undertake to-night, not 
merely the ungrateful task of pointing out the errors 
and crimes of the ecclesiastical confessional ; but, in 
contrast thereto, of inquiring, What is the true con- 
fession which every soul should make to a holy and 
righteous God? As there is no creed, no system, no 
form of faith which does not recosfnize the fact of sin 
against God and his law ; so there is no creed or sys- 
tem which must not, of necessity, recognize the de- 
sirability and necessity of our becoming so adjusted 



Romanism and the Republic, 375 

to the God against whom we have sinned that we 
can live in peace with Him. All systems of religion, 
nearly, embrace the principle of sacrifice ; and sacri- 
fice is always an attempt on the part of the sinner to 
placate the God against whom he has ofiended. 
Whatever may be our association with men, and 
whatever may be our harmony, or want of harmony, 
with the laws and statutes of the State, the relations 
which w^e sustain to God, and those alone, can prop« 
erly be designated as sinful or righteous. Against 
the laws of the State we can say that we commit 
crime, but we do not say we commit sin ; for sin is a 
transgression of the law of God ; and he who com- 
mits sin offends directly the Majesty of heaven. 
Therefore, the sinner must come to God ; or hear 
from God concerning away of forgiveness, in order 
that he may be saved. 

Confession is necessary in order to pardon. *' Who- 
so covereth his sin, shall not prosper ; but whoso 
confesseth and forsaketh them, shall find mercy." 
On the deep principles of that philosophy which 
understands thoroughly human nature, is based the 
duty of confession. No one is in a condition to be 
pardoned for the guilt that he has acquired, while he 
covers and denies his fault ; but in that moment 
when he honestly confesses the same, he has put 
himself in a condition whereby, other arrangements 
being made on the part of the just God, he, on his 
part, can be relieved from the burden of guilt and 
sin. 



376 Romanism and the Republic* 

In that wonderful prayer from which the first of 
our texts is taken, our blessed Lord tells us where 
to go, and how, in order that w^e may be forgiven 
our trespasses and discharged of our debts. No sug- 
gestion of any other interposition than His own is 
implied ; no intimation that any other person than 
God need be approached. Here, the child who ad- 
dresses his Father-God, and who asks with the faith 
of the little sparrows, assisted by the majestic reason 
of the man, for daily bread ; and who, in his love of 
righteousness, prays for the coming of that kingdom 
which is the greatest blessing to all mankind, — the 
child, recollecting his own sin, humbly entreats the 
divine Father: "Forgive: forgive us our debts, as 
we forgive our debtors." 

Where is there any suggestion that any person 
other than God need be present with this humble 
and penitent soul when he prays, in order that he 
may be relieved of his debt, and forgiven his tres- 
passes? Or if we turn to the text in St. James, 
which has been made much of by those who distort 
the Scriptures to favor auricular confession, we hear 
it said: "Confess your faults one to another, and 
pray one for another, that ye may be healed." In 
this Apostolic declaration, it is evident that one man 
is under just as much obligation to confess his fault 
as is another; and that if there is any law by which 
a man is to confess his sins to a priest, by that same 
law the priest is to confess his sins to that man ; and 
if it be necessary that the priest should pray for a 
man in order that the man should be forgiven, it is 



Romaiiism and the Rejpuhlic. 377 

equally necessary that the man should pray for the 
priest in order that the priest may be forgiven. 
**Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for 
another, that ye may be healed." "The effectual 
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much ;" 
but if the man who offers the prayer is not a right- 
eous man, whether he be priest, bishop, or pope, his 
prayer availeth nothing. 

The divine mystery of forgiveness has a deeper 
signification than appears on the surface, with which 
you who have heard the Gospel all your lives are 
entirely familiar. The provision for human forgive- 
ness and salvation is by one great sacrifice, that of 
Jesus Christ, — by one great mediator, Jesus Christ, 
— by one great high priest, Jesus Christ ; and by 
Him alone. 

Now, on the evidence of perverted Scriptural 
texts — of casuistry, which is unreasonable — of super- 
stitions, which cannot stand the light of truth — in 
the interests of priestly tyranny and ecclesiastical 
emolument, the Eoman Catholic Church has built up, 
in the face of Heaven, the tower of auricular confes- 
sion, far more injurious to mankind than the tower 
of Babel ever was, and producing more confusion in 
the minds of their devotees than ever that Baby- 
lonian tower produced in the tongues of its builders. 
Auricular confession is one with the boundless cor- 
ruptions of an immoral theology — of Pope worship, 
image worship, mass worship, saint worship, — is a 
part of paganism, from first to last ; creates a thou- 
sand times more sin than ever it rid the world of | 



378 Romanism and the Republic, 

puts an iron collar around the neck of every Koman 
Catholic, and drags him, heart-broken and unhelped, 
behind the car of ecclesiastical espionage and of 
papal power. Confession is necessary, according to 
the reasoning of the Roman Catholic Church, in 
order to absolution ; absolution is necessary in order 
to the communion ; the communion, or the mass, is 
necessary in order to salvation ; and, therefore, the 
confessional must precede salvation, and every man 
must be drawn through it to be saved. 

I am reminded of those fires of Moloch through 
which the children of the heathen were drawn in 
order to be saved ; and I truly think that they got 
as near to God when they were drawn through the 
fires of Pagan idolatry, as the Roman Catholic can 
get by being dragged through the slums of auricular 
confession. 

A very distinguished and learned priest, in New 
York, only a few days ago, stated to me, that it was just 
here the light dawned upon his mind with reference 
to the falsities of the church in which he found himself. 
This very distinguished priest said : "I found myself 
^\Q hundred miles from any other priest in Dakota. 
The nearest priest. to me was an illiterate man — a 
man, so far as I know, of no elevation of character. 
I remembered while there, that if I were dying, it 
would be necessary for me to confess and receive 
absolution and extreme unction ; and I knew that it 
was impossible for me to get the priest there, so that 
I mi«"ht confess and receive his absolution ; there- 
fore," he said, "it dawned upon my mind that the 



Romanism and the Republic, 379 

church had exacted of me an impossibility; that I 
could not pass through the ceremonial of confession 
and absolution and extreme unction, because I was a 
missionary, and five hundred miles from any other 
priest ; therefore I was sure to be lost." And he 
said: "As I walked the hills of Dakota and medi- 
tated on that, it so opened my mind to the falsehoods 
of the theology to which I was bound, that at length, 
having fully considered it and made up my mind that 
it was all wrong, I sat down and wrote a letter to my 
bishop, saying that I resigned my charge. I packed 
up what little efiects I had (I left three or four hun- 
dred dollars of salary that I suppose I had a right to) , 
and directed my steps to New York, where I might 
meet men who would tell me more plainly the way 
of life." And I said : ''I wonder why it is. Doctor, 
(he held his doctorate of divinity from the Roman 
University,) that you were so many years finding 
this out." He said: "I cannot tell you, sir. It is 
a strange fatuity that holds us ; but how plain it is 
when once we turn our reason upon it." 

It is in the confessional that Rome has its stronof- 
est hold upon its devotees. It is here that you find 
the reason why the men who are ashamed of the 
falsehoods of their faith cannot break with it ; be- 
cause the spies of the confessional are continually on 
their tracks, searching their inmost thoughts and 
daily actions ; and there is not an hour in which 
they are free from the oversight of iheir tyrants, who 
watch them with the purpose of holding them still 
captives. 



380 Romanism and the Republic, 

It is my purpose on this and on subsequent occa- 
sions, to open the door of the confessional, and to 
reveal, as it is, this sacrament, so-called, of the 
Roman Catholic Church, which, more than any other 
power, restrains the liberties of her people, mental 
and spiritual ; and in order that in our consideration 
of it you may know that what I state will bear the 
scrutiny of the most careful eye, 

1. I propose to state who are the witnesses 
whom I summon in order to tell you about the con- 
fessional. It is necessary, of course, that those wit- 
nesses should be unimpeachable. I have heard no 
answer yet to the suggestion which I made, that if 
the Roman Catholic priests or people were disposed 
to controvert my views publicly, they should have 
the opportunity ; but, none the less, I am resolved 
that every word that I speak shall be so established 
that there can be no successful contradiction of it. 
One of the authors from whom I shall quote most 
freely to-night, says : ** In contending with Rome, 
be sure you give your authorities ; because it is the 
fashion and usage of that Church to deny what is not 
incontestably proven against it." 

The first authority that I shall quote is De Sanctis, 
concerning ^vhom we have the following facts, which 
will interest this audience. *' Dr. De Sanctis was 
thoroughly versed in the mysteries of the confes- 
sional, as may be inferred from the fact that for 
fourteen years he exercised the office of confessor, 
and that for seven he held the highly responsible 
post of parish priest at Rome — being thus, in con- 



Romanism and the Republic, 381 

formity with Papal usage, brought into intimate 
relation with the secret police ; while for ten years 
he fulfilled, though reluctantly, the office of consul t- 
er to the Roman Inquisition, and would hence be 
introduced behind the scenes of the religious and 
political drama enacted at the Papal See." It is 
said further concerning him, that " fully aware of the 
extent of the loss he was about to undergo ; knowing 
that he exchanged honor for disgrace, wealth for 
poverty, fame and distinction for obscurity and dis- 
repute ; he heeded not the amount of the sacrifice, 
but forsaking country, family and friends, he counted 
all things but dross, so that he might enjoy the clear 
sunshine of an untroubled conscience, and proclaim 
with untrammelled freedom the rich mercies of the 
Gospel, in all their purity and fulness. It is curious 
that for his emancipation he was indebted to one of 
the many honors heaped on him, till they almost 
equalled in number the years he had been in Holy 
Orders. Being appointed to deliver a course of 
lectures against heretics, he received a license to 
read their works. Gradually, the light of Divine 
truth dawned more and more clearly on his mind ; 
and the more earnestly he strove and prayed to be 
led into the right way, the more did his growing 
persuasion of the errors of the Church of Rome 
deepen in intensity. To maintain a struggle against 
conviction was inconsistent with the candor and 
the integrity conspicuous in the character of De 
Sanctis ; and henceforth he resolved to preach the 



382 Romanism and the Hepuhlic, 

faith which he lately studied to destroy." (Preface 
to De Sanctis on The Confessional.) 

There is no more reason for discrediting De 
Sanctis than there is St. Paul : he followed that 
illustrious apostle of the Gentiles in an almost 
similar course. Pius IX. (at that time Cardinal 
Feretti,) went to Malta, to which place De Sanctis 
was exiled ; and, falling on his neck, entreated him 
with all the art of which he was capable, to return to 
the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church ; but he 
preferred poverty and exile for the sake of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. From him, as an authority, I shall 
freely quote, holding in my hand a book of his writ- 
ing, entitled: ** Confession : a Doctrinal and His- 
torical Essay." 

2. I shall also quote Pierre Hyacinthe, whom we 
know as Father Hyacinthe, the distinguished 
preacher at the Church of Notre Dame in Paris. 
Notre Dame is one of the grandest cathedrals under 
whose arches man ever stood. In that vast church 
thousands sat to listen to the rare eloquence of this 
man ; who, finding himself at variance with the Pope 
and the theologians of Rome, abandoned the highest 
honors, and took an obsure position as preacher of 
Jesus Christ. 

3. I shall also quote Charles Chiniquy, known as 
Father Chiniquy, of Canada, who was fifty years a 
member of the Roman Catholic Church, and twenty- 
three years a priest. Concerning Father Chiniquy, 
the following facts may interest you, as showing 
that he was fully accredited by the Roman Catholic 



Romanism and the Hepublic, 383 

Church, and that it is impossible to break down his 
testimony. 

It is said here by his biographer (Father Chiniquy 
is still living; he spoke in Boston two weeks ago), 
that " the great city of Montreal, moved to gratitude 
by his service to the cause of temperance, presented 
him with a gold medal, on one side of which was: 
** To Father Chiniquy, Apostle of Temperance, 
Canada," and on the other, *' Honor to his Virtues, 
Zeal and Patriotism." Moreover, the Pope extended 
to him his blessing. On the tenth of August, 1850, 
a letter, of which the following is a translation, and 
of which I will read a part, was sent to Canada by 
Charles T. Baillargeon : "I have taken the oppor- 
tunity to present to him (the Pope) your book, with 
the letter, which he has received — I do not say, with 
that goodness which is so eminently characteristic — 
but with all special marks of satisfaction and of 
approbation, while charging me to state to you that 
he accords his Apostolic Benediction to you and to 
the holy work of temperance which you preach." 
Signed, after much more of the same import, 
*' Charles T. Baillargeon, Priest." 

Moreover, the Bishop of Montreal, when Father 
Chiniquy, in 1851, left his old field for a new one, 
wrote him a letter that says, among other things : 
'* You ask me the permission to leave the diocese to 
offer your services to the Monseigneur of Chicago. 
As you belong to the diocese of Quebec, I believe 
that it appertains to Monseigneur the Archbishop 
to give you the exeat which you ask. For me, I 



384 Romanism and the Republic, 

cannot but thank you for your labors among us. 
You shall ever be in my remembrance and in my 
heart, and I hope the Divine Providence will permit 
me at a future time to testify to you all the gratitude 
that I feel within me. Meanwhile, I remain, dear 
sir, Your very humble and obedient servant, 

Ignatius, 
M. Chiniquy, Priest. Bishop of Montreal. 

Many times since then, Roman Catholic mobs have 
tried to kill this man, and still he lives to bear wit- 
ness against the evils of Komanism and the wicked- 
ness of priests. 

4. I shall also quote the Rev. Mr. Aubin, of this 
city, a Baptist minister, brought up a Roman Catho- 
lic, and a highly reputable man among us, who has 
told me some thins^s concerninof the confesssional. 
I shall quote also from the Rev. L. N. Beaudry, who 
stood in this pulpit not long since and addressed 
this congregation, and who is an esteemed minister 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

5. I shall quote also from J. Blanco White, who 
for many years was a priest in the city of Seville in 
Spain. He had a most excellent reputation among 
all men, and was a member of the Protestant Church 
for the space of fifteen years, after renouncing Rome. 

6. I shall quote also from Henrietta Carracciolo, 
who was the daughter of Marshal Carracciolo. She 
gives us the result of her observations and experience 
in a work entitled * 'Twenty Years in aNeopolitan Con- 
vent." The high character of this lady, not excelled 



Romanism and the Re/puhlic. 385 

by that of any woman in the world, guarantees, as 
does the corroboration of her testimony, the reli- 
ability of her words. But more than this. These are 
but a few of the many on whose testimonj^ I shall rely. 
I shall read a letter in one of these books, signed by 
forty-nine Roman Catholic women, testifying to the 
abominableness of the confessional. These forty- 
nine are only a part of hundreds and thousands that 
in Canada have renounced the Roman Catholic 
Church and have become Protestant Christians. I 
shall quote also from numerous priests. 

In order that you may know that what I state 
cannot be controverted, even from the Roman Catho- 
lic standpoint, I shall quote the theologians of Rome 
in their confessions and their questions to priests. 

7. For example, I shall quote from Kenrick's 
**Theology," which devotes seventeen pages to a con- 
sideration of the dangers resulting to priests in the 
confessional, from the character of questions which 
they are compelled to ask. I can give you the asser- 
tions of Roman Catholic authorities almost without 
number. 

When I come to the final testimony, that is to be 
relied upon as beyond all controversy, I shall have 
in my possession the questions which the young priests 
are taught that they must ask in the confessional. 
I was given by a priest, the other day, the book 
which he studied in the college of St. Mary in Balti- 
more, where he prepared to be a priest, the work of 
Bishop Bouvier, also the work of Peter Dens, also of 
Liguori and of Debreyne, — all of these containing 



386 Romanism and the Republic, 

exactly what these priests are compelled to study 
and to ask of their penitents in the confessional. 

Now my friends, something is to follow our consi- 
deration of this matter ; something is to be done when 
we have learned the horrors of the confessional. 
When I have given you testimony that cannot be 
controverted, I want you to have so examined it, to 
so listen and to so satisfy yourselves, that if you are 
called upon to vote in this city as to whether Roman- 
ism shall dominate our schools and ourselves, you 
will not cringe and cower as so many times our 
American municipalities have done ; but will know 
enough, and have courage enough, and heart and 
manhood sufficient to say to Rome, "Hands off! 
You are not fit to take control of any municipality 
in the nineteenth century." In other words, I want 
you, my friends, to have the truth, so as to act right ; 
to act with that vigor, that assurance, that honor and 
that fearlessness with which our heroes acted in times 
gone by, when their convictions had to change for a 
time to defensive blows to save the nation from its 
enemies. 

What, then, is auricular confession? The word 
* 'auricular" means, confession in the ear; and of 
course it means confession in the ear of a priest. 

1. Most copious authorities prove that Roman 
Catholicism has borrowed this, as it has borrowed 
many other things, from paganism. I have here a 
list of a dozen authorities who ao^ree in the followino^ 
facts: "Auricular confession was enjoined in the 
Elusinian Mysteries, by Zoroaster in Persia, Buddha 



Romanism and the Republic, 387 

in India, and was practiced by the ancient Babylonians 
and Eofyptians, the Mexicans before Cortez, the Peru- 
vians before Pizarro, by the Japanese, the Siamese, 
and others." In the list of those historians, not to read 
them all, we have Wilkinson in his " Ancient Egypt," 
Bancroft in his *' Native Races," and other equally 
reliable authorities. We have also direct testimony 
that the priests of Bacchus, who was the God of wine, 
listened to auricular confession ; and I beg you to 
notice what is said by a distinguished priest, confirm- 
hig the truth of this statement: "Nobody can be 
surprised that the priests, the bishops and the Popes 
of Rome are sunk into such a bottomless abyss of 
infamy, when we remember that they are nothing else 
than the successors of the priests of Bacchus and 
Jupiter. For not only have they inherited their 
powers ; but they have even kept their very robes 
and mantles on their shoulders, and their caps on 
their heads. Like the priests of Bacchus, the priests 
of the Pope are bound never to marry, by the impi- 
ous and godless laws of celibacy. For every one 
knows that the priests of Bacchus were, as the priests 
of Rome, celibates. But, like the priests of the Pope, 
the priests of Bacchus, to console themselves for the 
restraints of celibacy, had invented auricular confes- 
sion. Throusfh the secret confidences of the confes- 
sional, the priests of the old idols, as well as those of 
the newly ir 'ented wafer-gods, knew who were 
strong and t eak among their fair penitents ; and 
under the v/il "of the sacred mysteries," during the 
night celeV.ation of their diabolical rites, they knew 



388 Homanistn and the Hepuhlic, 

to whom they could address themselves, and make 
their vows of celibacy an easy yoke." ''Let those 
who want more information on that subject read the 
poems of Juvenal, Proper tins, and Tibbellus. Let 
them peruse all the historians of old Rome, and they 
will see the perfect resemblance which exists between 
priests of the Pope and those of Bacchus, in reference 
to the vows of celibacy, the secrets of auricular 
confession, celebration of the so-called *' sacred mys- 
teries," and the unmentionable moral corruption of 
the two systems of religion. In fact, when one reads 
the poems of Juvenal, he thinks he has before him 
the books of Dens, Liguori, Debreyne, and Kenrick." 

It was not until the year 1215 that auricular con- 
fession became a dogma of the Roman Catholic 
Church. Prior to that time, confession was volun- 
tary. At that time Innocent III. issued to the Lat- 
eran Council the edict by which, from that time, 
confession became compulsory ; so, evidently, it is 
one of the later dogmas of the Roman Catholic 
Church. As Roman Catholics are compelled to be- 
lieve, since 1850', in the Immaculate Conception, and, 
since 1870, in the Infallibility of the Pope ; so, since 
1215, they have been compelled to believe in Auricu- 
lar Confession, under penalty of mortal sin. 

2. Where is this confession heard? If you go 
into a Roman Catholic Church, you are likely to see 
what are called confessional boxes. They are little 
houses, large enough on the inside for one or two per- 
sons to sit. There is a grated window, at which the 
penitent kneels, on the outside. You find these in 



JRomanism and the Republic. 389 

all the great Roman Catholic Churches of the Old 
"World; and, I suppose, in this country, although I 
have visited fewer Roman Catholic Churches here. 
The priest, sitting in the inside of this confessional- 
box, as it is called, receives the confession of the 
kneeling penitent on the outside. But not only 
there : the confession can be taken in a private house 
or private room, as we have known in this city of a 
priest taking the confession from his penitent in his 
parlor. It may also be received in the sick room, 
on the dying bed ; but is always, I believe, con- 
ducted in private, only the priest and the penitent 
being present. Now, who are compelled to confess? 
3. The answer to that question is, that every- 
body is compelled to confess ; and that everybody is 
compelled to confess everything. For instance ; I 
find here, from ''Butler's Catechism" — a standard 
authority — the following statement, approved by 
several bishops of Quebec. On page 62 it reads : 
"That all penitents should examine themselves on 
the capital sins, and confess them all, without excep- 
tion, under penalty of eternal damnation." We find 
in this book of De Sanctis, on page 21, that confes- 
sion is absolutely necessary for forgiveness and sal- 
vation. In Bishop Hay's "Sincere Christian," the 
following question and answer occur: "Is this [au- 
ricular] confession of our sins necessary for obtain- 
ing absolution? It is ordained by Jesus Christ as 
absolutely necessary for this purpose." We have, 
on the 118th page, this statement: "In Rome, all 
religious instruction consists in teaching the people 



390 Romanism and the Republic, 

to confess. Confession and Eoman Christianity are 
their convertible terms. Do you wish to know a 
so-called good Christian? It is he who confesses 
frequently. Do you wish to carry a certificate of 
Christianity? Carry a certificate of confession. The 
servants of the Cardinals cannot touch their washes 
at the beginning of the month, unless they pre- 
sent the certificate of confession. Meanwhile, relig- 
ious ignorance is such, that they do not even know 
that there is a book called the Bible, containing the 
Word of God. The people's article of faith is : 'I 
believe all that the Holy Church believes.' Such 
religious ignorance engenders superstitions, infidelity, 
immorality, and the loss of souls. But what signi- 
fies it? Such ignorance maintains confession?" That 
is by De Sanctis, who himself heard confessions in 
Kome for many years. 

4. Now, as to the frequency of confession : the 
more frequent the confession, the more pious the 
person who confesses is supposed to be. When 
Martin Luther was in the bondage of Rome, he was 
accustomed to confess every day, and sometimes 
more than once a day. Other priests of the Roman 
Catholic Church are reported to confess once a day, 
and once a week ; and sometimes the nuns, it is said, 
remain for two and three hours in the confessional, 
two or three times a day I But it is absolutely neces- 
sary, in order that a person shall have any standing 
in the Roman Catholic Church, that he shall take the 
communion at least once a year, and he cannot take 
the communion without confessing prior to it, and 



Romanism and the Repuhlic. 391 

receiving the absolution of the priest. Therefore, 
the Roman Catholic must confess once a year, and is 
commended for confessing as frequently as once a 
day. 

5. What must be confessed? I already have 
read you one authority, "Butler's Catechism," with 
reference to that. But, further, I answer, the person 
who confesses to the priest, must confess every deed, 
every word, every thought, every dream. He must 
confess everything that has passed in his mind, or 
passed in his words, or in his acts, concerning which 
he is doubtful, and concerning which he is not in 
doubt. Let me give you an authority for that state- 
ment : "When the Council of Lateran decide^ that 
every adult, of either sex, should confess all their 
sins to a priest at least once a year, there was no 
exception made for any special class of sins, not even 
those committed against modesty or purity. And 
when the Council of Trent ratified or renewed 
the previous decision, no exception was made, 
either, of the sins in question. They were ex- 
pected and ordered to be confessed as all other 
sins. The law of both Councils is still unre- 
pealed, and binding for all sins, without any ex- 
ception." It is imperative, absolute; and every 
good Catholic, man or woman, must submit to it, by 
confessing all his or her sins, at least once a year. 
The celebrated controversial catechism of Rev. 
Stephen Keenan, approved by the bishops of Ireland, 
positively says (page 186) : "The penitent must 
confess all his sins." And anything left out of the 



392 Momanisin and the Republic. 

confession so vitiates it, that it is not a good confes- 
sion. If a person goes to the confessional and con- 
fesses ninety-nine out of a hundred sins, and leaves 
out that one sin, the confession is of nothing worth. 
I want you to notice this ; because of the tortures that 
it inflicts on conscientious people Avho go to the con- 
fession. They are requested and desired to recall 
every sin, every thought, word, dream, imagination 
that they have had which may be considered a sin, 
mortal or venial. If they try to do it, they may fail. 
If they fail, they cannot be absolved for the sin ; and 
iftheyfailin confessing everything, they are lost. 
Thev struo'o^le to find the sins — all of them,-^and in 
their struo^oie reveal a thousand thins^s which should 

CO o 

never be on human lips ; at least, which should never 
pass between any man or woman and the celibate 
priest in the privacy of the confessional. But Father 
Chiniquy says, that the fear and anguish which many 
conscientious Roman Catholics have, lest tlieir con- 
fession is not a good one, is a source of continual 
distress to them. 

Moreover, these fears as to the quality of the con- 
fession not only work exceeding grief to a soul, but 
they aiford an opportunity for the diabolical ingenu- 
ity of the bad priests to question and search and 
probe and discover the deepest, the minutest, and 
the most sacred secrets of the soul. "Though the 
penitent is told that he must confess his thoughts 
only according to his best recollection, he will never, 
never know if he has done his best to remember 
everything ; he will constantly fear lest he has not 



Momanism and the RepnhUc, 393 

done his best to count and confess them correctly." 
" Every honest priest, if he speak the truth, will at 
once admit that his most intelligent and pious peni- 
tents, particularly among women, are constantly 
tortured by the fear of having omitted to confess 
some sinful deeds or thoughts. Many of them, after 
having already made several general confessions " (a 
ojeneral confession is of all one's sins from the beo^in- 
ning of one's life,) "are constantly urged, by the 
pricking of their conscience, to begin afresh, in the 
fear that their first confessions had some serious 
defects. Those past confessions, instead of being a 
source of spiritual joy and peace, are, on the con- 
trary, like so many Damocles' swords, day and night 
suspended over their heads, filling their souls with 
the terrors of an eternal death. Sometimes the 
terror-stricken consciences of those honest and pious 
women tell them that they were not sufficiently con- 
trite ; at another time, they reproach them for not 
having spoken sufficiently plain on some things fitter 
to make them blush." 

But there is a deeper dread than this which makes 
the confession an enoine of torture. It is this : 
Every sacrament may be vitiated and made of none 
account by what is called the intention of the priest. 
Now the Doctrine of Intention in the Eoman Catholic 
Church is this : suppose that a priest is about to perform 
the mass, and he has not the intention of really per- 
forming it, then the bread over which he has said the 
mummery of the mass, is not, as they suppose, the 
real body of Christ, but only bread ; and therefore, 



394 Romanism and the Republic , 

for them, all its character is vitiated. Suppose that 
a priest stands up to marry a man and a woman, and 
in his intention he resolves that the ceremony shall 
not be what it seems to be, then these people are 
not married, according to the Roman Catholic Church. 
Suppose that the priest hears a confession in the con- 
fessional, and it is in his intention that the words of 
absolution which he speaks shall not really absolve 
the penitent, then the penitent is not absolved. So 
a vicious priest, who has not the intention of carrying 
out the sacraments as they appear on the surface, 
may jeopardize the eternal salvation of every soul 
who confesses to him. Do you see in what torture 
the Roman Catholic is ? 

Sometimes people are inclined to go over to 
the Roman Catholic Church, because they are so 
unspeakably lazy that they want somebody to attend 
to their religion for them, while they attend to the 
world, the flesh and the devil ; but remember, that if 
you go over to the Roman Catholic Church, and if 
you leave the intention demanded by your sins to a 
priest, it may be that he will simply make an 
inclined plane for you, through the confessional box, 
to that ruin which you are trying to escape. 

The probing questions of the priests enter deep 
into the soul of the penitent. Back of every word I 
say now, there is a revelation that 1 must not make 
to you about the questions that the priests, from the 
time they begin to take confession, are permitted, 
commanded, and compelled to ask. 



Romanism and the Republic. 395 

I remember hearing the story told by Father 
Chiniquy of a beautiful woman in the house of whose 
father he had frequently been a visitor, coming one 
day to his confessional box, when he was a young 
priest. She knelt down beside the box at the little 
grated window, and her deep sobs and ejaculated 
prayers wrung his heart, for he knew not their cause. 
When he gently spoke to her, she answered, and 
besought him in the name of all that was good, for 
the sake of her soul, that he would not ask her the 
questions that her former two confessors had asked. 
She said to him : '* When I went to the first, I was a 
spotless, stainless woman. He asked me those 
questions that poisoned and degraded my soul and 
blackened my life. The sin which followed was only 
the natural consequence. I left him in the bitterness 
of my spirit, and went, after a year of sin, to another 
confessor, an old man. The same thing followed 
again ; and now," said she, ** I come to you, and I say 
to you, if you will promise not to ask me those soul- 
damning questions, I will confess to what a woman 
ought to confess ; but unless you promise I will not 
confess." He said to her: "I am compelled to ask 
counsel as to whether you must confess or not. I 
shall be obliged to go to my own confessor, to con- 
sult the authorities of the Church." He went. 
They told him that it was not in his province to decide 
what he would ask in the confessional ; that he must 
I ask what the theologians and fathers of the Holy 
Church had prescribed. He came back to the con- 
fessional on another day. The broken-hearted and 



396 Homanism and the Republic, 

beautiful woman was there. Once more she prof- 
fered her request ; and when he said to her : "I am 
compelled by the law of the Church to ask you 
those questions," she fell fainting on the cushions 
where she knelt. He rushed out, lifted her up, and 
and carried her to her home. The shock was too 
great for her. She steadily declined, and was on her 
dying bed. He went to visit her, in order to give 
her the last rites of the Church. It was necessary, 
before she could have extreme unction, that she 
should be prepared for death by confession ; and he 
said to her, ' ' I have no alternative ; I must ask you 
these questions." She said: "I will not listen to 
them. You preached from the story of the Prodigal 
Son ; it was that which awakened me when I was 
living in sin with the priest who had ruined me. 
Now I will not listen to those questions. I will throw 
myself into the arms of my Saviour, and die as I 
may." The last words she uttered were : '*I shall 
not be lost." Her mother heard that last word "lost," 
and rushed into the room to find her daughter dead ; 
and lived in the belief, from which Father Chiniquy 
could not deliver her, because of the secrecy of the 
confessional, that her child had refused to receive 
the last rites of the Church, and was lost. 

One such fact as that will damn forever auricular 
confession : and when I say to you that facts like that 
are numbered by thousands and millions ; that the 
witnesses to them are priests without number and , 
authorities uncounted ; then I give you an idea of the 
kind of questioning, of the subtle inquiry, of the 



Romanism and the Bepiihlic, 897 

degrading methods for probing the conscience and 
searching the soul, that are adopted in the Roman 
Catholic confessional. 

I believe there are priests who break the laws 
of the Church ; that are too manly to ask those ques- 
tions ; that evade them and avoid them : but if they 
do, they do it at their peril, for the law of the Church 
is against them. 

6. What follows confession ? Absolution. What 
is that? Let me read the words, or part of them, in 
which the absolution is given. When the penitent 
has confessed, the priest uses the following language : 
*' The passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merits 
of the blessed Mary always Virgin, and of all the 
saints, and whatever good you have done, and what- 
ever evil you have suffered, be unto you for the 
remission of sins, the increase of grace, and the reward 
of eternal life. Amen." This is a part, an illustra- 
tive part, of the absolution which follows confession; 
and if the penitent believes that the priest has that 
power, and can believe with easy conscience that he 
has answered all the questions and confessed all the 
sins, he goes forth fondly believing that he is forgiven 
before God. 

What follows ? Why is it that the priest stands up 
in the presence of his congregation with that haughty 
air of arrogant pride? Why is it that the priest, as he 
walks among his flock, carries himself as if he had 
positive and absolute authority over their thoughts 
and their consciences ? Why is it that when you meet 
him on the street he tosses up his head as though he 



398 Romanism and the Republic. 

were a demigod, and hardly Deeded to tread on com- 
mon earth ? It is because he has the secrets of his 
flock, the personal and private life of those who have 
confessed, and those who have not confessed, whose 
servants and families have brought him the informa- 
tion. It is because he is virtually a spy in every 
home, and knows every heart; and knows that, if he 
wishes to, he can force them by his knowledge to 
yield to his power and come under his sway. No 
wonder that he carries himself in thepride of presump- 
tion and arrogance as a master ; no wonder that from 
the altar he threatens them with cursing if they refuse 
to obey his will. And this, in my judgment, after 
careful study, is the reason for auricular confession 
in the church of Rome. 

There is another point that I must touch before I 
part with this theme to-night, in order that I may 
get sufficiently along with the subject to meet the 
further demands of another occasion like this. All 
the confession of the penitent is declared to be abso- 
lutely secret and kept in the bosom of the confessor. 
That is the theory of the Roman Catholic Church. 
Every word spoken to the priest in the confes- 
sional is an absolute secret between him and the 
penitent; so that, I suppose, if a Roman Catholic 
priest in this city had knowledge of any matter 
whatever, whether relating to an individual or a 
community, delivered to him in the privacy of the 
confessional, he would not be compelled by any law 
of the State to tell what he knows, even though disclos- 
ure might lead to the protection of virtue or the 



Momanism and the Ilejpuhlic. 399 

overthrow of evil doing. Let me read you the theory 
of the church in its own words : "It is not lawful to 
reveal anything that is told in confession, though it 
be to avoid the greatest evil that can happen ; or to 
save a whole commonwealth from damage, temporal or 
spiritual ; or to save the lives of all the kings in 
Christendom. The seal of confession must be main- 
tained even by falsehood and perjury ; though the loss 
of a man's life, or the ruin of the State, be the conse- 
quence : nor can the Supreme Pontiff dispense with 
the obligation," says Dens, in his Theology. " The 
seal is an obligation of Divine right most strictly in 
every case, even where the safety of a whole nation 
is at stake," says St. Liguori. " But, Father ! it 
may happen that my confessor will make known my 
sin to another. What do you say? Know that the 
confessor is bound to suffer himself to be burnt alive 
sooner than disclose a single venial sin confessed by 
a penitent." Such is the theory of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church and under the pledge of such secrecy all 
confessions are made. 

Do you believe that they would be made if the 
penitent were aware that the seal of the confession 
was as easily broken as the other pledges of the 
Roman Catholic church ? Can you imagine that man- 
hood and womanhood would make absolute surrender 
of all the facts, the thouo'hts, the dreams of their 
lives to another if they supposed that that other 
would ever reveal those secrets? And yet I say 
to-night, on the most unimpeachable authority, that 
the secrets of the confessional, from Popes who have 



400 Romanism and the JlepuhUc, 

been confessors down, are not only the subject of 
rude jest and free conversation and open comment; 
but they have been the means of working ruin to 
those who have made confession, by their betrayal 
to the civil and other authorities, even when such 
men have been only the friends of liberty and endeav- 
oring to make free the State. So abundant is this 
testimony that I hardly know how to take hold of it, 
for the very brief moment which I can use to speak 
upon it. I find De Sanctis saying, on page 122, 
exactly what Father O'Connor said to me in New 
York only a few days ago, as follows : " But while the 
penitent arraigns his faults with all the fatuity of a 
simpleton, what is the confessor doing? Laughing 
at the simplicity of the penitent : and afterwards, in 
the priestly orgies that follow a morning of great 
confessions, in the hilarity that flows from wine, 
amidst coarse explosions of laughter, they describe 
the stupid folly of their penitents, and each priest 
vies with his brother in rendering his own penitents 
more ridiculous than the rest. To such a deofree is 
the individual debased and degraded by confession." 
Further I find upon turning to a historical authority, 
that Pius v.. Pope of Rome, " for the punishment 
of certain offences, took advantage of the confessional, 
which ought to be an inviolable sanctuary." While 
he was Cardinal, the extraordinary apparent piety of 
his life made a great many flock to him for confession ; 
** but they grievously misreckoned when they con- 
fessed to a person who adroitly took care to assure 
himself of name and surname, which he committed to 



Romanism and the Hepuhlic. 401 

his memorandum book, probably with the intention 
of using the information at a fitting opportunity ; as 
in fact he did. For no sooner was he made Pope, 
than he gave the Governor of Rome a list of five per- 
sons, three men and two women, supplying him 
with the requisite particulars for finding them. He 
took care, however, not to mention that they had 
confessed to him, though he positively assured him 
of the grave offence that each had committed. When 
the Governor replied that justice was not accustomed 
to imprisonment on informations, without the cer- 
tainty of having witnesses, Pius answered : *' When 
you have imprisoned them, you can then, on the 
assurance of our word and our conscience, put 
them to the torture : for they will assuredly confess 
the offences of which we inform you." This was the 
act of Pope Pius Y. 

Pope Sextus Y. summoned confessors, and said, 
'*That they could make a report to the Pontiff, with- 
out any danger attached to revealing a confession, he 
giving them absolution for the whole." That is, the 
Pope, considering the fact that the confessors had 
taken the oath of secrecy, absolved them from the 
oath, and compelled them to tell the secrets of the 
confessional to him, in order that he mio^ht enchain 
the freedom of the mind, and in order that he mi^ht 
destroy heretics. Page after page of testimony here 
follows. Citations from historians of the hisfhest 
reputation are given to show how numerous the in- 
stances, how unnumbered the occasions, on which 
the confidence of the penitent has been betrayed 



402 Romanism and the Republic . 

rudely by the confessor. "The general opinion of 
Eoman Catholics is, that priests do not think of, nor 
recollect, the sins they hear in confession, and much 
less talk of or relate them to others ; but, with the 
greatest regret, I can assert the contrary, and prove 
the fact. Some lay people informed me, that they 
heard several priests in company relating some sins 
of a delicate nature, of which the said clergy acquired 
knowledge in the confessional, under the seal of their 
sacred tribunal, at which they Avere greatly scandal- 
ized, but had not fortitude enough to reprimand, or 
sufficient knowledge to report them to their superiors, 
who ought to suspend them perpetually from their 
office. I have been present in company at different 
times, when I witnessed priests revealing heinous 
sins sacramentally made known to them ; some 
priests informed, without the least necessity, of some 
enormous crimes they heard in confession, perpe- 
trated between . . . There it stops very properly. 
(Rev. L. Morissey, Parish Priest, etc.) 

Moreover, "several priests vie at times amongst 
themselves, to know which of them can relate and 
inform each other of the greatest and most odious 
sins communicated to them in the sacred, confidential 
tribunal . They take a secret pride in having it in their 
power to make such communications." A bishop 
informed me of the sins of one of his penitents, told 
him in confession, who was a respectable lady, and an 
acquaintance of mine. He even mentioned her name. 
Some coolness existed between a certain priest and 
myself, to whom I was in the habit of going to con- 



Homanism and the Republic. 403 

fession previous to our misunderstanding. In the 
course of some time after, he revealed my sacra- 
mental confession to others in my presence." So he 
goes on to say: "I shall only say, that this sacra- 
ment was considered before now as the pillar of the 
Koman Catholic Church, through which grace was 
conveyed and salvation obtained ; but now it is con- 
sidered by many priests and prelates as the pillar of 
the Holy Inquisition, the source of genuine informa- 
tion for sanguinary purposes, the security of abso- 
lute and universal influence, and the extermination of 
heretical pravity." (Ibid.) 

The following are the words of one who was him- 
self a Popish priest for some time. Referring to 
another priest, whom he occasionally met, he says : 
**A11 our conversation ran upon the stories he heard 
in confession. But he is not the only person who is 
free in what he has heard, for it is the ordinary dis- 
course of the priests, when they meet, to inform one 
another of what they have heard in confession. This 
I can assert, because I was often present at such con- 
ferences, where the conversation was so indecent 
that even an honest pagan would have blushed." (See 
Elliot, "Delineation of Roman Catholicism.") 

* 'Every day they [the Dominican monks] came, 
and talked most licentiously, relating things that 
had happened at the Holy Office at Perugia, confes- 
sions they had heard, etc." This is from the bishop 
of Pistoia, Scipio de Ricci, whose memoirs were so 
scandalous that the Italian Government caused them 
to be printed in order to give a reason why the Gov- 



404 Romanism, and the Republic. 

ernment had seized the property of the church, and 
turned out the monks and nuns from the houses 
which they had disgraced. My friends, only the 
lack of time is a bar to my reading to you for half an 
hour the most astonishing and undeniable testimony 
on this subject. We have here an Italian patriot 
telling us how the names of the patriots were dis- 
covered through the confessional ; how the priests 
delivered them up to the secular power and the In- 
quisition ; and how, as a result, these men were im- 
prisoned and exiled. 

I will not take time to read you in his words the 
fact that De Sanctis himself, when the Inquisition was 
broken up and free Italy resumed control of the 
Roman States, found in the library and archives of 
the Inquisition volumes like ledgers, in which were 
the names of the persons, whose confessions were on 
adjacent pages, and there was the secret history 
of their lives, written out for the use of the Papal 
power, in order to the suppression of any revolt 
against its authority. I have not time to tell you 
how often the confession is betrayed ; how small a 
tax is necessary in order that the priest may be 
excused for it : nor have I time to tell you how the 
priests bring their influence to bear upon the penitents 
to get permission to reveal what they are determined 
to reveal, whether the penitent shall give his consent 
or not : for if the penitent refuses to give his consent 
to the revelations of the confession, then the priest 
refuses absolution, and the poor person stands, as he 
supposes, in danger of immediate and final damnation. 



Romanism and the Republic, 405 

What does the confessional do ? These are proofs 
of the manner in which its secresy is violated. Are 
there Roman Catholics in this house to-night? are 
there intelligent people here, members of that Church ; 
who, unaware of the manner in which their confidence 
is betrayed, have believed that this priestly absolu- 
tion was simply the purpose of a good man to deliver 
them from their sins? My friends, you are greatly 
mistaken. The purpose of auricular confession is so 
to enchain you that you shall not dare to break away 
from the power of the priest ; and that you shall not 
dare to think for yourselves in matters of religion or 
anything else. It induces immorality and crime. 
It degrades the priests and the penitents. It ruins the 
State and assaults liberty. It plunders families by 
means of the last and dying confession of their mem- 
bers ; so that their wills are made in favor of the 
church. It renders impossible religious progress. It 
blights domestic happiness. It enchains all its devo- 
tees ; and the truth of this statement I shall vindi- 
cate by ample proof hereafter. 

I turn from a picture so revolting — from a scene 
so sad — remembering that multitudes of our fellow- 
men are in this bondage : I turn to one of many 
radiant lines of light from the Scriptures of Divine 
Truth, which I pray you to carry with you in your 
recollections of this hour. *' Two men went up into 
the temple to pray ; the one a Pharisee, and the 
other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed 
thus with himself: God, I thank Thee that I am not 
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or 



406 Romanism and the Republic, 

even as this publican : I fast twice in the week, I 
give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, 
standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes 
unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, 
"God be merciful to me a sinner." And what said 
the Great High Priest of time and eternity concerning 
this confession? " I tell you, this man went down 
to his house justified, rather than the other : for every 
one that exalteth himself shall be abased ; and he 
that humbleth himself shall be exalted." O friends ! 
will not you preach this doctrine to our brethren of 
the Romish Church ? Will you not carry this Bible 
truth to those who sit in the shadow of religious 
tyranny? Will you not tell them out of your own 
heart, from your own experience, that the man, 
however sinful, wherever he may be, who, in the 
presence of God, smites upon his breast in humble 
penitence, and confesses sin, praying " God be mer- 
ciful to me a sinner," that man, by word of Jesus 
Christ, is a justified man. Oh that the day may 
come when the slaves of Rome shall have this justifi- 
cation through Jesus Christ ; and when you and I, 
and all of us, can tell them, that we, for our part, 
know what it is by a blessed experience. Amen. 



Sermon XW. 



THE ROMISH CONFESSIONAL, WHAT IT IS, 
AND WHAT IT DOES. 

The Romish Confessional cannot have the sanction 
of God. 

We find the words of our text to-night, as we pur- 
sue the subject of the Roman Catholic Confessional, 
in the Second Epistle General of Peter, the second 
chapter, and the nineteenth verse: *' While they 
promise them liberty, they themselves are the 
servants of corruption ; for of whom a man is over- 
come, of the same is he brought in bondage." The 
eighteenth verse reads: "For when they speak 
great swelling words of vanity, they allure through 
the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, 
those that were clean escaped from them who live 
in error." 

Every person in this congregation, I hope, at some 
time has thanked God for the story of the Prodigal 
Son. Of all the words of Jesus Christ, the good 
Shepherd of the sheep, who sought after us to save us, 
there are none more tender than these. Many of 
this congregation know, by personal experience, the 
history of a youth who wasted his substance with 



408 Romanism and the Repuhlic. 

riotous living, and awoke to his shame in a strange 
land. Kneeling on the ground, with no great cathe- 
dral roof above him, with only the swine for com- 
pany, and God over all, this boy turns his heart and 
thought and prayer toward home, and says : ** I will 
arise, and go to my father; and will say unto him, 
Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy 
sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." 
The father's heart never had ceased to long for his 
son, and ere the penitent reached the paternal man- 
sion, the swift feet of love had met him, and fallen 
on his neck, and kissed him ; had given orders that 
the best robe should be put upon him, the shoes and 
the ring, and that the feast should be prepared, and 
had directed that merriment and gladness should 
reign around ; " for this my son was dead, and is alive 
again ; he was lost, and is found." 

If the Romish confessional were necessary in order 
that men should get back to their Father, this story 
would never have been written. If there need be 
the interposition of a priest, who should hear in his 
ear all the sin and sorrow of a wandering man, this 
story of the Prodigal Son would never have been 
spoken ; and perhaps the good God gave us this story 
in order that, at this time, in the nineteenth century 
of Christianity, we might lift up our voices against 
the claims of ecclesiastical power, and the hindrances 
which priests put in the way of those wdio will seek 
their God, and say : *' As came the prodigal to his 
father; so, my brothers, let us come to God." 



Romanism and the Republic. 409 

The Bible is self-consistent in every part ; and there- 
fore the theory of confession and pardon which you 
find in one place must be congruous and harmonious 
with that you find in all places. The prodigal came, 
exactly as we were saying on last Sunday night that 
they come who pray the Lord's prayer, and say, 
** Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive." The 
prodigal came precisely as the publican smote upon 
his breast, and prayed, *' God be merciful to me a 
sinner." Nor can there be any contradiction from 
Holy Scripture of this method of confession, and of 
its acceptability to God against whom we have sinned. 
This Bible theory of confession is taught by all 
Protestant Christians, — that I may come to God 
anywhere, at any time, without any interposition 
but that of Jesus Christ ; and may have as definite 
assurance that God the Father receives me as that 
prodigal had of parental goodness, who felt the 
arms of love about his neck, and the pressure of 
love against his bosom, while the old man rejoic- 
ingly said: '* This my son was dead, and is alive 
again; he was lost, and is found." 

But there are two passages of Scripture which, as 
used by Romanists, are in diametrical contradiction 
to this form of true confession. On those two, 
more than on any other, they build up the alleged 
Scriptural authority for auricular confession. The 
first of those passages is in the 16th chapter of the 
Gospel according to St. Matthew, where it is said by 
our Lord, addressing Peter : '* I will give unto thee 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever 



410 Homanism and the Republic, 

thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; 
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
loosed m heaven." The Roman Catholics who are 
in this congregation, know that from this statement 
the deduction in all the Roman Catholic books is 
this : The power of the keys given to Peter, the 
power of binding and loosing sins, is now solely in 
the Roman Catholic Church. The rights that Peter 
had by this promise were handed down to Popes 
following him, and bishops and priests, so that only 
by them can the kingdom of heaven be opened or 
closed, and only by them can the souls of men be 
bound or released. 

But the Roman Catholic Church itself says that 
this promise was fulfilled as recorded in the 20th 
chapter of St. John, where, in the 19th verse, it is 
said that our Lord met his disciples, while they were 
assembled secretly for fear of the Jews ; that he 
breathed on them, and said : " Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost : whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted 
unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are 
retained." The Roman Catholic Church, De Sanctis 
says, tells us that this is the fulfillment of the prom- 
ise. Here you will observe that at the fulfillment of 
this promise all the disciples were present ; not Peter 
only, not the apostles only, but the one hundred and 
twenty men and women who constituted the infant 
church; and that the power of *' binding and loos- 
ing," to use the Roman Catholic phrase, was given to 
every one of them, to all the Christians present. 
There can be no controversy whatever as to this fact, 



Romanism and the Republic. 411 

if people are disposed to be fair. The assumption, 
then, that Peter had this power alone, is plainly con- 
tradicted by the fact that our Lord gave it to all his 
apostles, and to all his disciples equally with the apos- 
tles ; that is to say, the power of opening heaven is 
in the Church as such, and as a whole ; and the power 
of binding and loosing, as it is called, is equally with 
every Christian, as with every other Christian. 

What, then, is that power? What is the key? 
What is the binding, and what the loosing? Simply 
and only, — and it is as plain as day to any who do not 
want to corrupt the Word of God, — that the Gospel 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is given to all men if 
they will receive it, looses from sin those who take 
it, and binds with a deeper condemnation those who 
reject it. This is the condensed and concentrated 
statement. There is no other key, excepting the 
Gospel, for heaven, and deliverance from sin. 

There is no other unloosing, except the unloosing 
which you can give, as well as I, if you have this Gos- 
pel to teach and preach. There is no binding, except 
the binding that you can give as well as the Pope, if 
you choose so to do, laying on men's consciences the 
Word of God, and holding them to it as the only 
way of salvation. And yet upon a childish perver- 
sion, superstitious, subtle, selfish, of these texts of 
Holy Scripture, has been built up the most colossal 
system of presumption, immorality and tyranny that 
the world ever saw. I say this deliberately, and I 
shall prove every word of it. 



412 Romanism and the Rejpuhlic, 

By the misuse of these texts, Rome has locked 
up men in the prison-house of superstition; has 
bound the human mind with chains of darkness ; has 
shackled states and imprisoned free thought ; has 
shed the blood of men whose lives were freely given 
for conscience and for principle. It has loosed no 
one ; it has chained the world. The only govern- 
ments that Rome has ever favored were tyrannies. 
Has the Pope ever pronounced his benediction on 
republics ? Has he ever espoused the cause of the 
people against their oppressors? Why, the other 
day, this old man of the Vatican, supposing the peo- 
ple were all as blinded as Romanists would make 
them, began to prate about the slave trade ; and the 
Worcester papers, that dare not say that we are here 
on Sunday night, said the Pope was moving in the 
direction of the suppression of the slave trade. How 
long ago was it that Protestant Christians, through 
their legislatures, denounced the slave trade? How 
many years have the guns of our navies on the coast 
of Africa delivered the slave and smitten his captor 
and kidnapper? And that old man has just woke up 
and asked these powers to combine against the slave 
trade ! Father Leo, if you are really against the 
enslavement of mankind, get down on your knees 
like a sinner, as you are ; ask Almighty God to for- 
give your presumption, and let go free the millions 
of Rome who are the slaves of superstition ! 

This utterly false and wicked idea of priestly con- 
fession puts bonds upon men and women, soul and 
body ; binds their spirit, conscience and mind ; 



Romanism and the Rejpuhlic, 413 

grasps their family, their social system, and their 
business ; seizes their property, and pursues them 
into their graves with rapacious demands for money ; 
robs them in such a way as monopolies never robbed 
the people ; or rather, as a monopoly, would make it 
appear that they monopolize Heaven's gifts ; assume 
that heaven is Rome's gift, while hell is its standing 
threat. 

Now, instead of taking away sin, I am prepared to 
show, God being my helper, and the devil and the 
Pope to the contrary notwithstanding, that instead 
of diminishing sin, which all true confession ought to 
do, there is probably no force operative in the world 
that has created more crime and more sin than the 
Romish confessional. I use the lanojuao^e of one of 
the most intelligent ex-priests in the world, who 
gives it as his opinion that the social vice, at the 
name of which we shudder and grow sick at heart, 
has not created, in its common form, more immor- 
ality, or dragged down more people, than the 
Roman Catholic confessional. It is an author of sin, 
instead of a saviour from sin. It creates sin, instead 
of releasing men from sin. 

I propose to show to-night, if I have time, first, 
that it is a system of falsehood and hypocrisy, pro- 
ducing crime and sin ; second, that it is a system of 
spies, of espionage upon homes, persons and govern- 
ments ; third, that it is against the peace, purity and 
welfare of the family : fourth, that it is the oppo- 
nent of liberty in the State ; fifth, that it is the foe of 
pure religion and of religious progress. 



414 Romanism and the Repuhlic. 

1. I say, first, it is a system of falsehood and 
hypocrisy, producing crime and sin. 

I have little less confidence in reading from De 
Sanctis, who will be my chief authority to-night, than 
I should have on matters of fact in reading from the 
Holy Scriptures ; for while I believe them to be true, 
most amply vindicated, I believe the same of this 
distinguished man who was emancipated from the 
Roman Catholic Church. When I say that the con- 
fessional is a system of falsehood and hypocrisy, I 
mean to say, that I do not think that a large majority 
of the priesthood give any evidence of believing that 
they can free men from sin by their absolution, and 
that they regard the whole thing with a mixture of 
superstition and contempt. 

De Sanctis says, after speaking of the character of 
the confessors: *' While the penitent arraigns his 
faults with all the fatuity of a simpleton, what is the 
confessor doing ? Laughing at the simplicity of the 
penitent ; and afterwards in the priestly orgies that 
follow a morning of great confessions, in the hilarity 
that flows from wine, amidst coarse explosions of 
laughter, they describe to each other the stupid folly 
of their penitents ; and each priest vies with his 
brother in rendering his own penitents more ridicu- 
lous than the rest. To such a degree is the indi- 
vidual debased and degraded by confession." 

The ex-priests with whom I have talked, say to 
me, that there are honest priests, and a good many of 
them, who feel thoroughly degraded by having to sit 
in the confessional and take the confessions that are 



Romanism and the Republic. 415 

given them. Some of them have said that the ear of 
the priest is the sewer into which flows all manner of 
evil and vicious conversation; and that while the 
priests sometimes in public, because of their fear of 
the Church, praise and laud the confessional, those 
same priests in private bitterly lament their own 
degradation, in that they are compelled to take the 
confessions of those that come to them. It generates 
hypocrisy and recklessness in the penitent. Of that 
there can be no question. Listen to De Sanctis, who 
was so many years a confessor in Rome. He says, 
on the 108th and 109th pages of his book : 

*'The facilities for obtaining pardon of sins, by 
relating them to a priest, too often a boon companion 
in the excesses of the penitent, pave the way to the 
commission of new sins. ' Sin confessed, sin for- 
given ;' ' Confessing a hundred sins is as good as 
confessing a hundred and ten,' are popular proverbs 
in Italy. But I take for an example Rome, the city 
which boasts to be the centre of religion, the seat of 
the pretended Vicar'of Jesus Christ ; the city where, 
more than in any other place, confession is largely 
practised. I likewise take Rome as an example, 
because of that city I speak with certain knowledge. 
That city was my native place, and I discharged in it 
for fifteen years the ministry of hearing confession : I 
fulfilled in eight years the duty of a parish priest ; 
these facts give me sufl&cient knowledge to speak 
with certainty. 

« ' Rome is the city which surpasses all the other 
cities of Italy in immorality. But perhaps the blame 



416 Romanism and the Rejpuhlic. 

ought to be imputed to the Roman people ? No. 
The Roman people, noble and generous as its fore- 
fathers, would be the people of the greatest virtue, 
a heroic people, if it were trained to virtue, if it 
were educated in the Gospel. But all the fine quali- 
ties of that people are stifled by the teaching of its 
Church, and the people are brutalized in guilt. 
Blasphemy against God is the predominant vice of 
the Roman ; but the blasphemer confesses, departs 
absolved, and is no sooner out of the church than he 
begins to blaspheme anew. Drunkenness, murder, 
theft, fraud, adultery, are crimes incessantly 
repeated ; but whoever commits them, confesses, and 
believes himself absolved ; and immorality is not 
only arrested, but, by the facility of pardon at the 
cost of a few prayers, is committed again without 
scruple. There is no society that had not annually, 
(at least up to 1848) its spiritual exercises to pre- 
pare for confession ; the number of individuals who 
did not confess at Easter in so vast a citv never 
amounted to fifty; yet, with so many confessions, 
immorality was ever on the increase, and vice ever 
triumphant ; and the increase was greatest (I speak 
of notorious facts) in those who were most regular 
in confession ; and to them is Rome indebted for the 
current proverb, ' Better an unbeliever than a 
bigot.'" 

He then goes on to give criminal statistics of the 
most startling character. For instance, he says : 
" Let statistics be appealed to, and it will be seen 
that if Catholic criminals are in ratio to the popu- 



Ttomanism and the Re^mhlic. 417 

lation as ten to a thousand, for instance ; Protestant 
criminals are only one to a thousand. Let Protes- 
tant England be attentively regarded, and compared 
with Catholic Ireland ; the Protestant cantons of 
Switzerland with the Swiss cantons ; the country of 
the Waldensians with the rest of Piedmont. Let 
statistics be consulted, and the difference will be seen 
at a glance between Protestants who do not confess 
to a priest, and Catholics who do ; it will be seen 
that the latter are much more criminal and immoral 
than the former." The man who had heard confes- 
sions for so many years ought to know what the 
effect of the confessional is. When I find that the 
Protestant Irishman is so noble a specimen of Chris- 
tian morality, I want to know why it is that men of 
the same blood are furnishing so vast a proportion 
of our criminals. We have not found out the reason 
yet ; unless we trace it to the Romish Church as a 
cause and a source. Please to notice : " Those most 
regular in the confessional," says De Sanctis, ** are 
the most notoriously irregular in their lives." 

We have supposed, in our simplicity, resulting 
from our lack of attention to this matter, that the con- 
fessional caused a good deal of restitution to be made 
in cases of theft, robbery and the like. What does 
De Sanctis say of that, on pages 126-27? I have 
never believed that the confessional favored honesty ; 
but now I know it does not. De Sanctis says : '* The 
much-vaunted restitutions are, after all, mere dust 
thrown in the eyes of simpletons " (rub the dust out 
of your eyes my friends,) ** that they may not observe 



418 Romanism and the Repuhlic, 

the peculations of the confessor : so rare are they, 
so insignificant, that they do not restore even a 
thousandth part of the plunder. To these insigni- 
ficant restitutions, which yet would be an advantage 
to society, is to be contrasted the encouragement 
given to theft, as to every other crime, by the facil- 
ity of obtaining pardon ; and the absolutions given to 
robbers, usurers, murderers, without their having 
made any restitution whatever. They repair to the 
confessor, present him with a goodly offering for a 
mass ; or, if they are robbers of celebrity, men 
abounding in wealth, they found a chapelry., a bene- 
fice, or something of the kind ; and who is the con- 
fessor, to resist the force of such powerful arguments, 
and send away the penitent without absolution ? At 
Rome, the public robbers who are in the galleys con- 
fess, all of them, once a year, and even oftener ; but 
never from those places does there come a restitution, 
though it is known that the objects stolen are 
secreted ; yet they confess and communicate." Now 
further: " At Rome, for instance, every one knows 
that Pius VII. granted to all who hear confessions in 
the Holy house Ponterotto, the privilege of absolving 
from the obligation of restitution all who have 
defi'auded the Rev. Apostolic Chamber, or the Gov- 
ernment ; and all defraud, and run there to receive 
absolution. But this is not enough. Leo X., in his 
Bull beginning with * Postquam ad Apostulatus,' 
gives confessors the privilege not only of absolving 
robbers, but of permitting them to retain, in all good 
conscience, the fruits of their usury, robberies, thefts, 



Romanism and the Rejpuhlic. 419 

etc., on condition that part of the goods be given to 
the Church." That is one way to get off, is it not? 
The robber, the murderer, seizes his victim, his 
plunder, and according to the Apostolic Bull of an 
infallible church, by paying a portion of this to the 
infallible church, has the power of binding and loos- 
ing applied to him, and the key turns which opens 
the kingdom of heaven, and he goes in, red-handed 
and black-hearted ! I myself have seen in the chapels 
of Rome, on the altars of their churches, in more 
than one instance, the daggers of assassins which had 
been placed there as an offering to the saint who had 
helped them, as they supposed, in the murder of 
their enemies. 

2. It is a spy system in the interests of tyranny. 
You remember the martyrdom of Bishop Latimer, 
who is one of the uncanonized saints of the English 
church, whom Romanists burned at the stake. Years 
ago in England, he said, in his sermon on Matthew 
viii., concerning the confessional: *'And so they 
came to all the secrets that were in men's hearts, so 
that emperor nor king could say nor do, nor think 
anything in his heart, but they knew it, and so applied 
all the purposes and intents of princes to their own 
commodities. And this was the fruit of their auric- 
ular confession." That was said some centuries ago 
in old England. They knew it then, and it has been 
known ever since. It is a system by which the priest 
who desires it, if you have a servant in your house 
who goes to the confessional, knows what you think 
and say and do ; as on the 132d page of this book of 



420 itomanism and the ItejpuhUc, 

De Sanctis: "Confession in relation to society may 
be defined as an universal spydom, organized and 
complete. Confessors are not content to know the 
sins of those who confess ; but they must learn the 
regulation and management of the family : and when an 
ingenious youth or an innocent maiden comes under the 
fangs of a knavish confessor (and which of them is 
not a knave ?) they do not escape till they have first 
revealed the secrets of the family circle — without, 
however, being aware of it," (and then follows a 
passage which I cannot read to you). 

Now the testimony as to their espionage, and of 
their reports to head-quarters concerning such action 
everywhere transpiring, is so voluminous that it 
is almost impossible to take out from it a little 
abstract for this occasion. I read : *'They were fur- 
ther enjoined," (that is, the Jesuits), "in all cases of 
doubt or difl&culty, in which a sovereign sought 
their counsel, to refer the matter to their superior 
and obtain his decision, before giving their own reply : 
in reference to which it must be mentioned, as an 
essential part of the system, that the confessions of 
sovereign princes were at all times communicated to 
the General of the Order." Further it is stated, that 
" By means of the religious Orders submitted to its 
power and discipline, the Holy See was enabled to 
penetrate into the secrets of the laws, and the feelings 
of the people. The confessional of every Catholic 
monarch found its corresponding echo beneath the 
dome of the Vatican." Further, we are told, that the 
messenger between the Council of Trent and the 



Romanism and the Republic. 421 

Jesuits of Paris, whose name is given, had for part of 
the instruction given him this: '*To take notice of 
the confessions of the people of France, and especially 
of the nobles and gentry, and in case they suspect 
anything detrimental to the Holy See of Eome, then 
to confer with three or more confessors of the sus- 
picion, and so take memoranda to be asked of the 
party so suspected the next time." And so the 
history goes on multiplying the proofs. We are 
told that even the boys in certain schools in Rome 
are encouraged to write out as a confession, at a cer- 
tain time in the month, all that they are, or think, or 
feel, or dream ; and this is laid with ceremony on an 
altar provided for the purpose ; remains in the hands 
of the confessors for a month ; is copied into books ; 
and so the secrets of ingenuous youth, and the house- 
holds to which they belong, become the property of 
the most unscrupulous spies of the most unscrupulous 
power that the world ever knew. There is authority 
given for breaking the seal of the confessional, as I told 
you last Sunday night, and as I need not now repeat. 
I presume that in three-quarters of the homes where 
Roman Catholic servants are employed who go to the 
confessional, your business, your words, your atti- 
tudes, your secrets, as far as known, have become the 
property of the priests. What do they do with them ? 
They lay the astutest and profoundest plans that they 
can possibly contrive for gaining such knowledge and 
influence as will be to the advantage of the Church, 
without reference to the advantage of anybody else ; 
for the confessions that are recorded in the confes- 



422 Romanism and the Republic, 

sionals of Kome are always in the interests of oppres- 
sion and tyranny. 

3. But I must hasten to show, that against the 
peace, the purity and welfare of the family, the con- 
fessional continually conspires. Do you suppose 
that Eoman Catholic men know the questions that 
are asked their wives and daughters in the confes- 
sional? I do not believe they do. Father Chiniquy 
says, they do not. He sa^^s, in a startling passage : 
'' But the betrayed husband knows nothing of the 
dark mysteries of auricular confession ; the duped 
father suspects nothing : a cloud from hell has ob- 
scured the intelligence of them both, and made them 
blind. On the contrary, husbands and fathers, 
friends and relations, feel edified and pleased with 
the spectacle of the *piety' of their wives and daugh- 
ters." (I have to read very carefully here.) *' The 
wife is brought under apostolic control, and so all the 
family. In the Church of Eome, if the husband ask 
a favor from his wife, nine times in ten she will in- 
quire from her father-confessor whether or not she 
can grant him his request ; and the poor husband will 
have to wait patiently for the permission of the master, 
or the rebuke of the lord, according to the answer of 
the oracle which had to be consulted. If he fi-ets 
impatient under the yoke, and murmurs, the wife 
will soon go to the feet of the confessor to tell him of 
the fact." And this man was a priest of Kome, and 
took confessions for twenty-three years ; and lives to- 
day to defy the power of the Pope, notwithstanding 
the most strenuous efforts to kill him. 



Romanism and the Republic. 423 

What is the influence on the home ? He says 
again : ** Thus it is that that stupendous imposture, 
the dogma of auricular confession, does completely 
destroy all the links, the joys, the responsibilities 
and divine privileges of the married life ; and trans- 
forms it into a life of perpetual, though disguised, 
adultery. It becomes utterly impossible in the 
church of Rome that the husband should be one with 
his wife, and that the wife should be one with her 
husband : a ' monstrous being ' has been between 
them both, called the confessor. Born in the darkest 
ages of the world, that being has received from hell 
his mission to destroy and contaminate the purest joys 
of the married life, to enslave the wife, to outrage 
the husband, and to damn the world." 

Turning to another authority, I find a similar 
statement in regard to intervention in family life, as 
follows : " In important questions afiecting the family 
welfare — the education of his children, the profes- 
sions of the sons and the marriages of the daughters, — 
the father finds his rightful authority superseded by 
the silent encroachments and underhand influences of 
the confessor. The mutual confidences of home 
disappear : its tenderest sympathies are destroyed ; 
its fondest associations are marred and disfigured ; 
and the cold shade of the priest casts a withering 
blight over its best and purest afiections." **The 
Confessional of De Sanctis," says his translator, 
" will beat least a timely, and in many cases it is to 
be hoped an efficacious antidote." Father Hyacinthe, 
that famous priest of whom I told you on last Sun- 



424 Romanism and the Repuhlic. 

day night, quoted by Chiniquy in "Priest, Woman and 
Confessional," says, concerning the character of the 
confessors, that 99 per cent, of them live in sin with 
their female penitents ; and Father Hyacinthe was the 
greatest preacher in France, until he renounced 
Romanism and left the pulpit of Notre Dame. 1 
would not dare to say as much as he said. I do not 
know as much as he knew. But the man who was 
the companion of Popes, of Archbishops and Car- 
dinals, of priests and confessors, would not say that 
unless he had great reason so to say. De Sanctis 
adds : " How can it happen otherwise, if immorality, 
thanks to confession, is reduced by Catholic priests 
to scientific principles? The most shameless liber- 
tine could not read, without blushing, the filth which 
is contained in the books of moral theology. And 
it is upon these books that the education of the 
young clergy in the seminaries is formed." 

He proceeds still further to show how true that is. 
Discords are fomented in families, by the confes- 
sional, in the interests of the church ; as when it is 
said : ' ' From the confessional proceeds the most 
serious discords in families : the priest is determined 
to rule at all costs ; hence you must either fall into 
his ideas, and thus make yourself his slave, or else 
prepare to wage a family war. If you conform to 
his ideas, you will no longer be master in your own 
house ; you will no longer be able to do anything 
without the jplacet of the confessor : he will thrust 
himself between you and your wife ; and, heedless of 
that sacred bond, a meddlesome priest will interpose 



Romanism and the Republic. 425 

with his connsels, his insinuations : he will interfere 
between you and your sons, and all 3^oar paternal 
authority will only be allowed to exert itself in sub- 
ordination to the dictates of your priest : he will 
arrange the marriage of your sons ; he will preside 
at their choice of a profession; he, in short, will be 
the true father of the family — 3'ou will only execute 
his will. Suppose you determine to escape this 
state of degradation, and propose to maintain your 
position as father and husband, and then all famil}'' 
peace is ruined : you will be looked on as an infidel, 
and as such, with hypocritical compassion, the con- 
fessor will describe you to your wife and to your 
sons." 

Do you ask why Roman Catholic men do not escape 
from the Church of Rome ? Do 3^ou not see how they 
are bound? " In continual contact with the priest," 
he says of women, lads and old men, '*and feeble by 
nature, they allow themselves to be imposed upon 
by him, especially in matters of religion ; and hus- 
bands, fathers and sons dare not hazard a word in 
the family circle with a view to exposing the abuses 
of the clerg}^ on religious subjects ; they dare not 
read the Bible, dare not enter into religious con- 
versations — both to avoid throwing a gloom over per- 
sons so dear to them, and for fear of being denounced. 

For the priest cannot absolve a wife or a son, if, 
with the knowledge that the husband or the father 
speaks of the Gospel otherwise than in the sense of 
the Church of Rome, they have not denounced him 
to the Inquisition, where it exists, or else to the 



426 Romanism and the Republic. 

bishop where the Inquisition exists no longer. 
Imagine, then, if religious progress is possible, where 
the discipline of the confessional exists." 

We have a record here which I will state and not 
read, that in the days when Italy was struggling to 
throw off the yoke of tyranny, both papal and civil, 
wives, intimate friends, children, in the confessional, 
were compelled to denounce their husbands, fathers, 
lovers and friends as being liberals, in the sense of 
loving liberty, and the result was their banishment^ 
or incarceration in the dungeons of the Inquisition, 
and sometimes death. *'Yea, the time will come when 
he that killeth you will think that he doeth God 
service." 

4. The greed of the confessors, in the matter of 
property, I must let you into the secret of. This 
eminent man says, that confessors, from being poor, 
become rich. ''By confession, in feet, so many 
families are immersed in poverty ; because the grasp- 
ing confessor, taking advantage of the weak moments 
of a dying man, has had the will made to the profit 
of the clergy ; and facts of the kind may be reckoned 
by the million. From confession arise so many 
separations of married people — frequent in proportion 
to the frequency of confessions." 

Now you know, that where extreme unction must 
be preceded by absolution in the case of a dying man, 
the priest has a fearful control over that man ; and 
that control has been repeatedly and continually used 
to extort from the dying a very large share of their 
property for the Church. De Sanctis says, that he 



Romanism and the Republic. 427 

has known confessors who were poor when they 
began to take confessions, and afterwards came to 
live in the splendid homes of families who were 
reduced to absolute poverty by the changes which 
those confessors made in the wills or minds of their 
penitents. For example, we have it recorded from 
very numerous authorities (this in De Sanctis ; it is a 
historical statement supplemented by the names of 
the authorities), that the "grasping cupidity of 
ecclesiastical will-hunters, and the consequent ruin of 
innocent and helpless families, formed the subject of 
an indignant remonstrance of the German princes at 
the Diet of Nuremberg. That the Popes should have 
connived at these fraudulent artifices, need not be a 
matter of surprise ; for a considerable number of the 
multitudinous clerical host must, no doubt, have 
died intestate, and all such property, by a decree of 
Innocent IV., was to escheat to the Pope. To such a 
length was this execrable practice sometimes carried, 
that the last sacraments were denied to the dying 
man till he consented to make a will in the priest's 
favor. To facilitate their nefarious designs, the 
clergy were provided with testamentary forms that 
might be executed at a moment's notice. For the 
further promotion of ecclesiastical interests, wills, 
before they were proved, were subject to a private 
preliminary examination in a ' special court ' called 
St. Peter's Tribunal. And for still greater security. 
Popes are equipped with the power of altering testa- 
mentary dispositions in favor of the Church." 



428 Romanism and the Rejouhlic, 

Robbers that they are ! Equipped with power, 
from what source? From hell; whence lies, thefts, 
corruptions and murders, of which they have been 
among the chief agents in the history of time, have 
been vomited forth. Chans^ino^ testaments indeed ! 
Ay ! they have changed the New Testament of our 
Lord and Saviour ; they have changed the Old 
Testament ; and they change the testamentary wills 
of men, that they may seize hold of their goods. 
*' Wyclifie, on his death-bed, testifies that the priest 
attending on the dying, were commanded by the 
Pope to extract bequests in favor of the Church." 
Further, it is said: *' How different the proposed 
reform is from the present corrupt state of the Roman 
priesthood, may be safely inferred from the numerous 
trials in Irish courts of justice, in spite of numbers of 
cases that are hushed up or compromised, where the 
inheritance of the deceased is disputed between the 
priest and the surviving relatives." When Gregory 
VII., with a power equal to that which any tyranni- 
cal ruler ever exercised, insisted on the celibacy of 
the priests, — when he separated the married priests 
from their wives and from their children, and forced 
with prodigious earnestness the bond of celibacy on 
the priesthood, — it was specifically declared, more 
than once, that the purpose was, that the estates of 
the priests might go to the Church, instead of going 
to the wives and children of the priests. And so 
one reason why the priests of Rome cannot marry, 
is that, grasping the property of their people, they 
hold it till they die, and give it to other priests for 



Romanism and the Rejpublic. 429 

the Church. Thus the Church and its ecclesiastics 
abound in wealth, and their people abound in noth- 
ing but poverty. 

5. The confessional is the assassin of liberty in 
the State. There can be no liberty (I have shown 
you that fully in preceding discourses) where the 
Pope of Rome has his way. There never has been, 
and there never can be. What does one say who well 
understands Eome, concerning the relation of the con- 
fessional to liberty? Father Chiniquy says : '* Have 
not the Popes publicly and repeatedly anathem- 
atized the sacred principle of liberty of conscience ? 
Have they not boldly said, in the teeth of the nations 
of Europe, that liberty of conscience must be 
destroyed, killed at any cost? Has not the whole 
world heard the sentence of death to libert}^ coming 
from the lips of the Old Man of the Vatican ? But 
where is the scaffold on which the doomed liberty 
must perish? That scaffold is the confessional box. 
Yes, in the confessional, the Pope has his 100,000 
high executioners. There they are, day and night, 
with sharp daggers in hand, stabbing Liberty to the 
heart." He says again: "In vain chivalrous Spain 
will call Liberty to give a new life to her people. 
Liberty cannot set her feet there, except to die, so 
long as the Pope is allowed to strike her in his 
50,000 confessionals. And free America, too, will 
see all her so-dearly-bought liberties destroyed, the 
day that the confessional box is universally reared m 
her midst. Auricular Confession and Liberty cannot 
stand on the same ground ; either one or the other 



430 Momamsm and the Republic, 

must fall. Liberty must sweep away the confessional 
as she has swept away the demon of slavery ; or she 
is doomed to perish." 

I refer again to the fact that Freemasonry has 
always been an object of intense antagonism to the 
Papal power, and you can see better now than at any 
former time why it is so. Freemasonry, in the old 
country, has been to some extent a refuge and sanctu- 
ary to men who were not in any sense political con- 
spirators, but who had hope in one another and 
trusted one another ; they dared to hold secrets one 
with another, which they believed for their mutual 
benefit and the welfare of the State, which secrets 
they would not tell in the confessional, and which 
even their wives and children could not know or tell 
in the confessional. But the penalty of belonging to 
that society ; the penalty of harboring a member of 
that society ;. the penalty for failing to denounce a 
member of that society, by the word of tlife infallible 
Pope, was death. You know why, now. Because 
the Freemason could not, and would not, by his obli- 
gations, put himself under the power of the priest. 
I have often thought there were things about this 
great society that needed to be reformed. But I tell 
you, my friends, it may be that even the most earnest 
antagonist of Freemasonry may see in it one of the 
bulwarks against the power of the confessional and 
the Romish Church in this country. I do not say it 
will be so ; but I tell you, it is getting to be easy for 
me to love what the Pope hates. 



Romanism and the Republic. 431 

6. And now as I draw to a close, I must show 
that as the Papacy and the confessional are the 
enemies of liberty and the assassins of the same, so 
the confessional is the foe of pure religion and relig- 
ious progress. Can anything be the friend of pure 
religionthat creates immorality, that destroys liberty, 
that invades and plunders the home, that steals the 
property of the dying? Oh, do not talk to me, my 
Roman Catholic brothers, — do not talk to me about 
the glory that would come to God, through evil 
doing. There is no glory to God in evil doing. If 
the confessional, as seems obvious from those who 
know all the facts concerning it, is the friend of 
immorality and creates crime, as I shall have to show 
next Sunday night more fully than I can to-night, 
then it cannot be for the glory of God. God is not 
glorified by wickedness. 

But there is other proof than this that the confes- 
sional is the enemy of pure religion. We are told 
that it advances infidelity and ignorance, by this most 
careful writer, De Sanctis, whom I quote once more : 
*«The horrible consequence, however, for religion 
and for souls, is that infidelity advances with huge 
strides, especially in Roman Catholic countries. The 
enlightenment of the age no longer permits men to 
believe in the priests blindly, as in the times of igno- 
rance. Free discussion alone could show that the 
doctrines of the Roman Church are not those of the 
Gospel ; discussion, as it would prove their falsehood 
to a demonstration, would establish the truth of the 
evangelical doctrine. Discussion being prevented, it 



432 Romanism, and the Republic. 

follows that, seeing clearly the falsehood and iniquity 
of the Roman doctrines, men believe them, because 
they are not discussed, to be the doctrines of the 
Christian religion, and abandon them, and live in in- 
difference and infidelity. Rome sees, knows, and is 
silent : she never quarrels with infidels, unless they 
speak against her ; but her quarrel rather is with those 
who, laying bare her abuses, seek to bring back their 
brethren to the Gospel, the religion of their fathers. 
The unbelieving and the sux)erstitious equally observe 
the Church of Rome, and are equally beloved by it; 
the Gospel alone it detests, and for the destruction 
of the Gospel it instituted confession." 

Furthermore he says: *' If confession is naturally 
ruinous to faith and morals, religious progress under 
such a system is manifestly impossible. Confession 
is the great obstacle opposed by the Popes to the 
re-establishment of the Gospel ; hence it is necessary 
to demolish such an obstacle to religious progress." 
And then he proceeds to the proof in great detail. 

It was intended, especially at the outset, to uproot 
heresy. The Popes' object for auricular confession 
was more this than anything else. For example : 
" Innocent III., the most knavish and the most auda- 
cious of all who have ever occupied the Roman See, 
resorted to the remedy." In the fourth Lateran 
Council after having proclaimed crusades, after having 
canonized persecution against those who published 
the Gospel, he instituted compulsory confession for 
all the followers of the Church of Rome, as a measure 
of preventive policy, to compel denunciation of 



Romanism and the Itepublic. 433 

heretics under penalty of eternal damnation ; and 
thus confession, which at first was free, became com- 
pulsory, and was afterwards converted, by the deci- 
sion of the Council of Trent, into a dooma of faith 
and a sacrament. The aim of confession therefore, is 
to prevent all religious progress, and maintain igno- 
rance and superstition." Has it practically and ac- 
tually corrupted religion ? There can be no doubt of 
this. A word or two more : " Nor can it be alleofed 
that certain Popes have misused religion, and that the 
abuses ousrht therefore to be attributed to the individ- 
ual and not to the system. From Sylvester to our 
time, all the Popes, some more, some less, have con- 
tributed to transform the religion of Jesus Christ, 
and to build up the system of oppression and politi- 
cal annihilation on the ruins of liberty and progress. 
Nay, the very Popes who have been most conspicuous 
in this work of destruction, are adored as heroes on 
the altars of Rome." Then, speaking of Gregory VII., 
he says : " Gregory YII. is on the altars of Rome," 
(that is, he is a canonized saint), *' and the ferocious 
Ghislieri (Pius V.), who, in the name of God and of 
the religion of the Gospel, taught the despot Charles 
IX. that he could never obtain from God the pardon 
of his sins if he did not shed, without the slightest 
compunction, the blood of his subjects who asked for 
the pure Gospel, — is not he also on the altars of 
Rome?" See what they worship. *'In canonizing 
such men, the Popes have canonized their doctrine ; 
hence it cannot be said that despotism, obscuration, 
oppressioii of nations, and hatred for any kind of 



\ 



434 Romanism and the Repuhlic. 

progress, exist through the mal-practice of any one 
of the Popes ; they exist by the very system of the 
Papacy. But the Popes, to establish thBir dominion, 
have butchered them by the million. But among so 
many Popes, has there been one, one only, who has 
deplored such abuses ? Therefore the corruption of 
religion ought not to be attributed to abuse of it by 
the individual, but to the system ; therefore the sys- 
tem ought to be reformed ; therefore the Gospel 
ought to reign in its purity, and ought to be delivered 
from this great enemy ; and Italy and Rome ought 
to confer upon the world this great benefit of despoil- 
ing the Popes of their usurped power, and 
re-establishing on the ruins of the Papacy the pure 
religion of Christ." 

We have come to the edge of a precipice. There 
are, no doubt, in this church to-night, many brave 
hearts, w^ho, with strength from purity, will dare 
with me to descend, scaling the face of this precipice, 
into the fearful abyss below. My friends, I beg you 
to remember as I close, that if we have shown the 
immorality and the hypocrisy of this system of con- 
fession — if we have shown that it is a system of spies 
for the overthrow of freedom — if we have shown that 
it is a foe to the family and an assassin to liberty, 
working the ruin of pure religion, in so doing we 
have only touched on the beginnings of its actual 
wickedness, and of the ruin which it works. And if 
you have hearts bold enough to hear, and God gives 
me judgment and wisdom enough to speak, T will let 
you down into those nether depths where you can 



Romanism and the HepubUc, 435 

see in all its horrors, the beastly immorality of 
priests and people, of Popes, Cardinals and bishops, 
of men, women and children, as the result of this 
wicked, ungodly, unscriptural, and unchristian 
system of auricular confession. 



Note by the Author. — The Author begs to say, 
in closing this work thus abruptly, that already it 
has grown nearly 150 pages beyond expectation. 
Manifestly, the discussion is not here completed. 
The patient reader has noted the logical order of the 
book, and that up to the close, it is a compacted 
whole. 

The Introductory discourse leads to the second ; 
which, of necessity, finds in the Jesuits the control- 
ling force of the Papacy ; they furnishing, in their 
principles and history, the key to the Papal inten- 
tion. Their pope is portrayed, in the third chapter, 
as the enemy of civil and religious freedom — as are 
they. And particularizing, the Papacy is shown, in 
the fourth and fifth discourses, to be antagonistic to 
the Constitution and to the Laws of the American 
Republic. Thus their hostility to universal educa- 
tion is manifestly based on irreconcilable animosity 
to the fundamental principles of our Government. 
The sixth, seventh and eighth chapters develope the 
purpose of Romanism to destroy our Public Schools ; 
showing the alleged and actual reasons for their at- 
tempt. Claiming, as they do, to educate, naturally 
we ask and answer, in the ninth, tenth and eleventh 



436 Romanism, and the Republic, 

discourses, the burning question, What do they pro- 
pose to substitute for Common School education? or, 
*'The morality which Romanism would teach Ameri- 
can youth." 

A few general observations previously omitted, 
upon parochial schools, make up the twelfth sermon. 
And then, to show how Roman Catholic peoples are 
suppressed and throttled ; to show also why they 
yield though they protest, the Confessional is ex- 
posed to view as the place where Papal tyranny 
forges the chains which bind them. 

Naturally, beyond these observations, much re- 
mains. The two discourses unveih'ng, the confes- 
sional, spoken to men only, are needed to complete 
the picture. The dogmas, the priesthood, the finan- 
cial greed and its impoverishing consequences, re- 
main to be discussed, and sharp contrasts drawn 
between the policy of a true Christian Church, and 
this politico-ecclesiastical tyranny. These the author 
may sometime put before the public as coniplemen- 
tary to the foregoing, believing that the free dis- 
cussion of Romanism, in all its monstrous deformity, 
is sure to detach from it those who, in the growth of 
their knowledge concerning the true Christian re- 
ligion, will behold in the Papacy the worst enemy of 
a genuine Christianity, and of the civil freedom of a 
Republic. 



INDEX. 



Abraham Lincoln, assassination of, 
persons concerned in it all 
Romanists, 272. 
Absolution, letter of, 199. 
case of a distinguished priest, 

378. 
what it is, 397. 

the doctrine of intention, 393. 
Absolute obedience, due to the 

Pope, 66. 
Absolutism of Vatican Council, 64. 
Abstract of encyclical letter of 

Leo XIII., 123. 
Acton, Lord, on Gregory VII. and 

murder, 271. 
Adultery licensed, 280. 

and Pius IX., 274. 
Albert, Archbishop of Mentz, and 
the selling of indulgences, 41, 
198. 
America, Jesuits in, 58, 59. 
under Rome, 129. 
her patron saint, 341. 
Amendment, First, to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, 101. 
antagonized by Church, 103. 
Antonelli, Cardinal, 81. 

on freedom of worship, 102. 
Appropriation of property by 

Church, 126. 
Aquinas, Thomas, on images, 300. 
Aracoeli, church and images, 301. 
Attack on Prussia by Napoleon, 

59, 60. 
Auricular confession, what it is, 
386. 
testimony on, 395. 
when introduced, 388. 
what confessed, 391. 



Auricular confession, Butler's cate- 
chism on, 391. 
Avignon, Popes at, 206. 

Baltimore Plenary Council, 167. 
on civil rights, 95. 
on crime among Romanists, 142. 
on teachers, 230. 
on parochial schools, 168. 
on Papal Syllabus, 94, 95. 
Bible, the, denounced, 75, 112. 
paraphrased, 330. 
in courts. Congress, &c., 188. 
taken from public schools, 172. 
Freeman's Journal on, 173. 
ignorance of, 390. 
errors of Vulgate translation, 

172, 278. 
why objected to, 193. 
Barnum, Dr., on rosary of Mary, 
337. 
on suppression of command- 
ments, 296. 
Beaudry, Mr., taught concerning 

Luther, 371. 
Bellarmine, Cardinal, on temporal 

power, 77, 78. 
Biel, Cardinal, on transubstantia- 

tion, 308. 
Bismarck on the Pope, 37. 
Books, authorized by the Sacred 
Congregation, 260. 
bulls on, 222. 
forbidden, 223. 
objected to, 229. 

Montreal Institute and Joseph 
Guibord, 225, 226. 
Boston Pilot on Romanism in 
America, 82. 



4S8 



index. 



Boston Eoman Catholic bishop 
commends coercion and the In- 
quisition, 109. 

Boston public school controversy, 
194 sq. 

Brownson on rights of sects, 123. 
on government, 129. 
review of 1862, on Roman Cath- 
olic schools and colleges, 236. 

Bulls concerning books, 222. 

Canonization, an example, 314 sq. 
Carmelite monks and Virgin Mary, 

340. 
Castelar on Romanism, 122. 
Casuistry, an example, 278. 
Cardinal Manning on the Pope, 

77. 
Cardinal Newman on Virgin Mary, 

332. 
Catechisms and idolatry, 296. 
Catholic Council, Eighth General, 

on images, 299. 
Catholic and Protestant countries 

in contrast, 127, 128, 143, 417. 
Catholic World on education, 162, 
234. 
on infallibility, 67, 79. 
" Catholic Directory," Sadlier's,on 

indulgences, 201. 
Catholic emancipation in Great 
Britain, 1.35. 
on oaths and vows of bishops, 

136. 
Gladstone on, 137. 
Celibacy, sacerdotal, character of, 

H. C. Lee, 275. 
Celibate priesthood, 35, 275, 387. 
Character of Popes, 207, 210, 211, 

353, 400. 
Chiniquy, Father, 382. 
on responsibility, 280. 
on mass, 306. 

on transubstantiation, 307. 
on liberty of conscience, 429. 
on confession, 395. 
on Jesuits as teachers, 231 . 
Christian ministry, duty of, 19. 



Church, Roman Catholic, no salva- 
tion outside of, 240, 241. 
Church, authority of, Mons. Segur, 
98. 
in sixteenth century, 41, 42. 
idolatrous, 295, 305, 331. 
Church, in politics, 132. 

more than country, 133. 
Civil power and Papacy, 97. 
Civil rights and the State, Pius IX. 

and Leo XIIL, 92. 
Civilization, modern, denounced by 
Pius IX. in seventeen proposi- 
tions, 73. 
Coercion, what it includes, 97. 
Rome's antagonism to the Con- 
stitution of the United States, 
98. 
its meaning illustrated by Hugue- 
nots, Waldenses, Albigenses, 
and Lollards, 104-106. 
testimony of De Sanctis, Ga- 

vazzi, and others, 141. 
relation to public schools, 159, 

169, 171. 
Dr. Newman on, 104. 
Cardinal Manning on, 104. 
Brownson on, 123. 
New York Tablet on, 123. 
Conscience, liberty of, 111, 186. 
Constitution of the United States, 
what it guarantees and what 
it forbids, 144. 
its character, 145. 
violations by Romanism, 33, 124. 
authority denied, 123. 
downfall promoted, 130. 
claims of supremacy over, 93. 
religious freedom under, 101. 
Confession, Archbishop Williams 
on, 171. 
Father Hyacinthe on, 382, 424. 
Liguori and Dens on, 399. 
De Sanctis on, 380, 415, 423, 431. 
Kenrick's "Theology" on, 385. 
Confession, betrayed by Popes, 401. 
auricular, 386. 
compulsory, 388. 



Index. 



439 



Confession, purpose of, 405. 

frequency of, 390. 

secrecy of, 398, 399. 

a system of falsehood, 414. 

hypocrisy of, 415. 

borrowed from paganism, 387. 
Confessional, the, falsity of Romish 

claims, 409. 

boxes, 388. 

violations of, by Pius IX. and 
Sextus v., 401. 

made a spy, 419. 

a conspiracy against family life, 
422; and restitution, 417, 418. 

against property and freedom in 
bequests, 427, 428. 

assassin of liberty, 429. 

against all religious freedom, 433, 
Copernican theory denounced, 80. 

by sacred congregation, 224. 

in Index Expurqatorius, 224. 
Councils of Worms and Biescia on 

Gregory VII., 211. 
Councils and Popes cursing one an- 
other, 206-212. 

D'Aubigne's " History of the Refor- 
mation," on indulgences, 197. 
Decree of Vatican Council on In- 
fallibility, 64. 
Dens, Peter, who, 258. 
on heretics, 113. 
on murder, 270. 
on Pope and oaths, 134, 263. 
on confession, as secret, 399. 
Denunciation of American liberty, 

131. 
De Sanctis, who, 380. 

on confession, 381, 415, 423, 431. 
Doctrine of merit, 203. 

of intention, 393. 
Dominican monks, 403. 
Donahoe, Patrick and La Maistre's 
letters on the Spanish Inquisi- 
tion, 109. 
Dr. McGlynn, 27, 192. 
his successor at St. Stephen's 
Church, 355. 



Duty of punishing heretics, 113. 
of Christian ministers, 19. 

Early Christianity, spirit of, 22. 
Ecclesiastical property, protest of 
Baltimore Council against civil 
control of, 95, 97. 
Education, godless or godly as de- 
fined by Romanists, 239-242. 
relation of Church to, 29, 102. 
result in Roman Catholic coun- 
tries, 236, 243. 
in United States, 246 sq. 
Brownson' s Review, 236. 
teachers preferred by Romanists, 

231. 
Romanist theory of, 234. 
American theory of, 235. 
Encyclical, Papal, what it is, 72. 
abstract of 1888, 123; of 1864, 
73, 156. 
Espionage in Rome, 141. 

in the confessional, 420. 
Excommunication and heretics, 
273. 
eifect of, 113, 270. 
bull of, by Pius IX., 113. 
Expectation of Romanists, 111, 129. 

Female divinities in paganism, and 
Virgin Mary, 318. 
prominence in Romish ritual, 319. 
the Virgin Mary of Romanism 
not the virgin of the Bible, 321. 
Franchise, the, and Romanists, 138. 
Fredet's History on the irregulari- 
ties of Popes and their public 
duties, 212. 
Freedom, religious, and the Papacj', 
102. 
of education, 102, 131, 163. 
of conscience, 111, 123, 186,429. 
of the press, 112, 163. 
of worship, 102, 123. 
Freeman's Journal, on parochial 
schools, 235. 
on Bible in schools, 173. 
on schools, 1()7. 



440 



Index. 



Freemasonry, antagonism of the 

Papacy to, 430. 
French Republic, hostility to, 99, 

100. 

Garfield, President, on separation 
of Church and State, 182. 

Gavazzi, on Roman government in 
1865, 141. 

Gladstone on Romanists and his- 
tory, 204. 

Governments and religion, tests of, 
254, 255. 

Government in Rome, Gavazzi and 
De Sanctis on, 141. 

Grant, General, on future contests, 
181. 

Gregory VII. and Council of 
Worms, 211. 

Guibord, Joseph, case of, 226. 

Gury, J. P., and moral theology, 259. 
OQ lying, perjury, etc., 267. 

Hawkins, Dexter A., on evils of 
parochial schools, 247. 
on appropriations of public mon- 
eys, 124. 
Hecker, Father, on state religion, 

82. 
Heretics, Dens on, 113. 
bulls of Pius IX. against, 222. 
under rule of Queen Isabella, 142. 
Historic methods of Romanism, 114. 
History and Romanism, 194. 
the Pope the judge of, 216. 
" Judges of the Faith " on, 220. 
in Ireland, forbidden, 372. 
Home Rule, 26, 128, 364. 
Hogan, William, indictment of the 

Jesuits, 265, 266. 
Hostility to public schools, real 

reasons for, 175. 
Hugo, Victor, on Papal education, 

249. 
Hyacinthe, Pere, on confession, 424. 

Idolatry and Romanism, 295. 
commanded, 298. 
worship of images, 297. 



Idolatry, worship of Pope, 311. 
of virgin, 332. 
of mass, 305. 
Illiteracy, 30, 243, 246. 
Immaculate Conception, decreed 

by Pius IX., 321. 
Immorality taught, 258. 
theory concerning it, 258. 
De Sanctis on, 415, 417. 
allied to paganism, 293. 
Independent, The New York, arti- 
cles of Roman Catholic lay- 
men, 349. 
Indignation meetings, and Victor 

Immanuel, 131. 
Index Expurgatorius, 222, 224. 
Indulgences, Tetzel, agent of, 41. 
Swinton's History on, 195. 
defined, 201. 
examples, 202. 
Pius IX. on, 202. 
Infallibility of popes, 64. 
Gladstone on, 65. 
Catholic World on, 67, 69. 
examples of, 80. 
Innocent XL and perjury, 263. 
Inquisition, never repudiated by 
Roman church, 75, 256. 
its methods, 106. 
in Spain, 108. 
in Rome, 110. 
Institute of Montreal, 226. 
Isabella of Spain and heresy, 142. 

Jean Antoine Llorente on Inquisi- 
tion, 107. 
Jesuits, their origin, 42. 

objects, 49. 

vows, 50, 51, 52. 

methods, 53. 

banished, 57. 

Gladstone on, 62. 

De Sanctis on, 63. 
Jesuits, and secular power of Pope, 
55. 

and death of Popes, 58. 

crimes of, 56. 

and confession, 421. 



Index, 



441 



Jesuits, Rosmini's book, 227, 228. 

in America, 58. 
"Judges of Faith," its authority 
with Romanists, 155-6. 

its utterances on schools, 157-60. 

on school hooks, 220. 
Jurisdiction of Pope, 270. 

Keys of Heaven, 410. 

La Maistre on Inquisition, 108. 
Lavelaye on Protestantism and Ro- 
manism, 143. 
Law of intention, 264. 

of reservation in oaths, 1&4, 264. 
Leo X. on indulgences, 195. 
Liguori on lying and perjury, 261. 

on confession as secret, 399. 

on Glories of Mary, 337-339. 

on stealing, 268, 269. 

on obedience and responsibility, 
281. 
Lincoln's assassination, 272. 
Llorente on Inquisition, 107. 
Loyola, Ignatius, 42. 
Luther, Martin, 47, 199, 371. 

Marriage, out of Romish church, 
" filthy concubinage," 74, 274. 
Mary, Virgin, an idol goddess, al- 
lied to pagan deities, 319. 
" Glories of," and prayer to, 337, 

339. 
Immaculate Conception of, 321. 
proclaimed divine, 326. 
her intercession necessary for 

salvation, 338. 
patron saint of America as St. 
George is of England, etc., 341. 
Mass, worshipped, 305, 311. 
Father Chiniquy on, 306. 
Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 115, 

274. 
McGlynn, Dr., 27. 
Missions, Jesuit, 54. 
Martin Luther 47. 
Miracles, alleged, 283, 301. 
Money, public, appropriated, 124 sq. 
raising money, 127, 356. 
how used, 247 sq. 



Morality and immorality as de- 
fined by Romanists, 258. 

Morrissey, Rev. L., on confession, 
401. 

Mortal sin, 268, 278. 

Murder, Dens on, 270. 
Lord Acton on, 271. 

Newman, Cardinal, on Virgin Mary, 

332. 

Oaths, of Romanists, 132. 

of Jesuits, 232. 

of bishops, 133. 

unreliable, 135, 136. 

reversible by Pope, 137. 
Obedience, to the Pope, 52. 

above law, 132. 

absolute, 66. 

effect of refusal, 72, 113. 

to be compelled, 104, 105. 

responsibility placed on Superi- 
ors, 280, 281. 

Paganism, three kinds, 288 sq. 
Paganism and Romanism, 292, 294. 
Papacy, and civil governments, 25, 

91. 
" Papacy and civil power" on lib- 
erty of conscience, 187. 
the, and Peter, 205. 
Papal church and immorality of 

Popes, 276. 
Papal Syllabus, 72, 94. 
Psalms, paraphrase of, 330. 
Persecution a duty, 78, 97, 140. 
Perjury, Lateran Council on, 263. 

J. P. Gury on, 267. 
Peter and Rome, "Variations of 

Popery" on, 205, 206. 
Parochial schools and Baltimore 
Plenary Council, 167. 
Mons. Capelle on, 163. 
Freeman's Journal on, 236. 
Parton on, 162. 
Hawkins on, 247. 
Their teaching not American, 370. 
Political activity commanded by ■ 

Leo XIII., 130. 
Poverty of Catholic countries, 128. 



442 



Index. 



Purgatory, 213, 214. 
Purcell, Archbishop, and school 
libraries, 221. 

Reformation, the, 41, 42, 197. 
Republic, the, and common schools, 

157. 
Responsibility, doctrine of, 280. 
Restitution, De Sanctis on, 417, 

418. 
Roman Church, the, a political 
unit, 32. 
idolatrous, 295. 

sanctions perjury, theft, and de- 
ceit, 265. 
claims supreme power, 26, 27. 
foreign in policy, 24. 
hostile to public schools, 29. 
to freedom, 98, 130. 
to republics, 25. 

the enemy of the United States, 
82, 91 sq. 
Romanism, not Catholicism, 23. 
the Latin Church, 24. 
a monarchy, 152. 
a form of paganism, 292, 329. 
Romanism and history, 194. 
and science, 225. 
and the franchise, 138. 
in America, Boston Pilot, 82. 
"Romanism and the Republic," 
title of book considered, 23-36. 
reasons for considering the sub- 
ject in this way, 23-36. 
Romanists and politics, 130-134. 
and the franchise, 138. 
oaths of, 132. 
and naturalization, 138. 
Romanists and Russians, a supposi- 
tion, 145. 

Segur, Mens., on the authority of 

the Church, 97, 100. 
S. J., Society of Jesuits, 231. 
"Sower, the, and the Virgin" on 

images, 298. 
Stillman, W. J., U.S. consul, on 

persecution in Rome, 140. 



Stealing, Liguori on, 268-270. 
Seventeen propositions of Pius IX., 

73. 
Suppression of liberty, 130, 
Swinton's History, proscription of, 

in Boston, 195. 
Syllabus, the, defined, 72, 94. 

Tablet, New York, on rights of 

sects, 123. 
Teaching of Jesuits, 53. 

its design, 232. 
Training of Jesuits, 51. 
Transubstantiation, " Variations 

of Popery" on, 307. 
Ten Commandments, the, scope of, 
254. 
changed by authority, 295-297. 
Temporal power and the Pope, 
Tract No. 46, 67-69. 
claims of Pius IX., 69-73. 
Dens on, 96. 

Cardinal McCloskey on, 76. 
Cardinal Manning on, 77. 
Cardinal Bellarmine, 77. 
nature of Papal claims, 80. 
oaths of ecclesiastics, 77. 
Tetzel, permission to commit sin 

and sale of indulgences, 200. 
Threats in Roman Catholic Review 
on New York Legislature, 132. 

Victor Immanuel, an indignation 

meeting in Philadelphia, 131. 
Violation of the Constitution, 124. 

Wafer, the, God, 282, 305. 

made by priests, 308. 
Williams, Archbishop, of Boston, 
on withholding absolution, 171. 
Wills and bequests controlled by 

priests, 427. 
Words of statesmen and agitation, 

366, 367. 
Worship of the Pope as God, 311. 
of Mary as God, 332. 
of images, 297-305. 
of mass, 305. 



APPENDIX. 



THE BALTIMORE CENTENNIAL AND ITS DECLARATIONS. 

The twelve hundred delegates of the Eoman Catholic 
Church assembled at Baltimore, Nov. 11, 1889, listened 
to carefully prepared papers on many subjects, and to 
addresses by her most eloquent and distinguished sons. 
There are in these papers and addresses frequent expres- 
sions of loyalty to the country, its liberty, its constitu- 
tion and laws, which are satisfactory in phrase and form, 
and which we would gladly accept as the policy of the 
Papacy. 

The very fact of these calls attention to another of 
much greater significance, viz. : that no other body of 
professedly religious people, save the Mormons, have in 
a time of peace made such professions. 

Their entire ecclesiastical system is now and ever has 
been so inimical to all that freemen hold dear, and their 
fundamental allegiance is so irreconcilably and trans- 
parently antagonistic to true fealty, that we can hardly 
be amiss in calling our readers' attention to a few frag- 
ments that embody the spirit underlying all the utterances 
of this assembly. 

1. All the speakers avow absolute and unconditioned 
loyalty to the Pope, who is now agitating all Europe and 
America for the restoration of the temporal power. 

Charles J. Bonaparte, in his paper " On the Independ- 
ence of the Holy See," says, recurring to the past years 
of the domination of the church : — 

" She needs now as she needed then, a chief ruler who for what 
he does or leaves undone shall answer at no human judgment seat. ' ' 

This puts the Pope above the laws and the judiciary. 
Again, said Mr. Bonaparte, 



444 Appendix. 

" Catholics will never accept any law of an Italian parliament as 
assuring the independence of the Holy See. A law is the act of a 
sovereign affecting those who are his subjects, or at least under his 
legitimate dominion. That a national parliament should pretend 
to legislate regarding the Holy See is a denial of its independence. ' ' 

Suppose that national parliament were the Congress of 
the United States ? 

" If we admit that he (the Pope) is such a subject, then the laws 
of the Italian parliament bind him as much if he disapprove as if 
he approve them. But in this admission is contained what Cath- 
olics do not and never can or will admit. The matter of the law 
goes for nothing, etc., etc., and for the Catholics of America we 
say this now and here — a subject he cannot be." 

Would Mr. Bonaparte and the Romanists who ap- 
plauded these sentiments, to which he and they, in his 
closing utterances, specifically pledged the Catholics of 
America, support and defend the Pope in denouncing, 
annulling, and overriding the laws, legislatures and courts 
of the United States as he did in Austria, Sardinia, etc.? 
(see page 100). Is this their boasted loyalty ? 

In addressing the assembled hierarchy. Archbishop 
Sotelli, as the representative of the Holy See, said : — 

" The Pope doubts not that the Catholics of America will labor 
that he may once more reacquire that independence and hberty 
which by divine institution appertains to him as sovereign head of 
all the church and representative of the person and authority of 
Christ, and under which liberty and independence the power of the 
free constitution of the states are founded, are maintained prosper- 
ous, and their existence secured." 

Are free American citizens expected to believe that 
these amazing assumptions can consist with a spirit of 
loyalty to oar institutions ? 

And finally, the whole Congress, in its last utterance in 
the platform of resolutions, declared itself as follows : — 

" We cannot conclude without recording our solemn conviction 
that the absolute freedom of the Holy See is equally indispensable 
to the peace of the church and the welfare of mankind. 

" We demand, in the name of humanity and justice, that tliis 
freedom be scrupulously respected by all secular governments. 

' ' We protest against the assumption by any such government of 
a right to affect the interests or control the action of our Holy Father 
"by any form of legislation or other public act to which his full appro- 



Appendix. 445 

bation has not been previously given, and we pledge to Leo XIIT. , 
the worthy Pontiff to whose hands Almighty God has committed tlie 
helm of Peter's bark amid the tempests of this stormy age, the loyal 
sympathy and unstinted aid of all his spiritual children in vindicat- 
ing that perfect liberty which he justly claims as his sacred and 
inalienable right. ' ' 

This is treason in Italy. What is it here ? Such an 
utterance should put every one on his guard against 
all the high-sounding professions of loyalty made at 
Baltimore. 

Submission to the Papacy involves, of course, the en- 
dorsement of its ultramontanism, as represented by the 
Jesuits, whom Archbishop Eyan eulogizes, without a 
hint of criticism, as "the greatest society in the Catholic 
Church." Yet this society is dreaded, doubted, hated, by 
freemen everywhere. 

Archbishop Ireland represented the Congress in its 
thought of America and Protestantism in such language 
as the following : — 

'•America is at heart a Christian country. As a religious sys- 
tem, Protestantism is in hopeless dissolution, utterly valueless as a 
doctrinal or moral power, and no longer to be considered a foe with 
which we must count. The Catholic Church is the sole living and 
endurmg Christian authority. ' ' 

Could assumption go farther ? 
Dr. Clark affirmed : — 

' ' The loyalty of the laity has been well exemplified by their 
devout acceptance of the dogmas of the immaculate conception and 
of papal infallibility, and in thek docile support of the decrees of 
the American councils." 

Could servility go farther ? 

And Archbishop Ireland would have these dogmas 
accepted by everybody in the United States. 

" Our work," he says, "is to make America Catholic. . . . Our 
cry shall be, ' God wills it.' . . . We know that the Church is the 
sole owner of the truths and graces of salvation." 

Major Brownson of Detroit, speaking on "Lay Action 
in the Church," said boldly : — 

*' The American system is anti- Protestant, and must either reject 
Protestantism, or be overthrown by it." 



446 Appendix. 

Judge Dunne in his paper on " The State and Educa- 
tion " claims America now as Catholic. He says : — 

" Why, then, should we not love this land ? Is it not our own ? 
Is it not Columbia, daughter of Catholic thought, of Catholic wealth, 
of Catholic courage ? Is not this whole country really a Catholic 
land ? Is it not under the care of Catholic saints ? With a Cath- 
olic population, this land were surely Catholic. Well, we have 
twelve millions of Catholic people now, and of them the end is not 
yet," etc. 

Daniel Dougherty, Esq., of New York, evoked the wild- 
est enthusiasm by making similar preposterous claims. 
Seven and a half millions is an outside estimate for their 
population, while by more careful reckoning there is a 
population of over fifty million adherents to Protestant 
churches. This is not a Eoman Catholic land, nor is it 
likely ever to be. 

Judge Dunne fiercely denounces the State in its rela- 
tion to public education ; and time and again the differ- 
ent speakers outspokenly declare for the sole right of the 
Romish Church to educate their children, denouncing tax- 
ation for education as now laid equally upon all. Never- 
theless, Americans, thanks to Protestant and State 
schools, can read, while Spanish, Italian, Mexican, and 
South American Romanists do not know their alphabet. 

Many things said at this gathering need to be ex- 
plained, and we may perhaps illustrate this by their 
references to the press and their professions of loyalty. 

Dr. George D. Wolff, speaking " On the Catholic Press," 
said : — 

' ' The Catholic press is to be the antidote for pestilential litera- 
ture. Catholic editors are not the expounders of what the editors 
may think in doctrine. Editors and writers are to declare the doc- 
trine taught them by the authorized teachers of the church." 

On the 13th of April, 1887, Archbishop Corrigan of 
New York wrote a letter, of which the following is a 
copy : — 

452 Madison Ave., New York, 
April 13, 1887. 
Editor and Proprietor of Catholic Herald. 

Gentlemen: — By this note, which is entirely private, and not 
to be published, I call your attention to the fact that the Tliird 



Appendix. 447 

Plenary Council of Baltimore, following the leadership of Leo 
XIII., has pointed out the duties of the Catholic press, and de- 
nounced the abuses, of which journals styling themselves Catholic 
are sometimes guilty. "That paper alone," says the Council 
(decree No. 228), " is to be regarded as Catholic that is prepared to 
submit in all things to ecclesiastical authority." 

Later on it warns all Catholic writers against presuming to attack 
publicly the manner in which a bishop rules his diocese. 

For some time past the utterances of "The Catholic World" 
have been shockingly scandalous. As this newspaper is published 
in this diocese, I hereby warn you that if you continue in this 
course of conduct, it will be at your peril. 

I am, gentlemen, yours most truly, 

M. A. CORRIGAN, 

Archbishop of New York. 

Does this consist with freedom of the press? As a 
significant commentary on their professions of loyalty it 
may be noted that, since the Baltimore Congress, the 
president of the Mormon Church has spoken, insisting 
that Mormons love the Constitution and the Qo^^^try, 
and are the most loyal of Americans. But to harmon- 
ize Mormon principles with Mormon professions is a 
far less difficult and complicated task, in view of the 
utterances of the Ya,tican in this generation alone, 
than to discover accord between the Pope's encyclicals 
and our laws ; the papal canons and the American 
Constitution ; Eomish methods and civil freedom ; 
papal history and American liberty ; Komish hierarch- 
ical despotism and the progress and purpose of the 
United States. 

Our final judgment of the utterances at Baltimore 
must be governed by such facts as these : — 

In 1870 the seven hundred bishops composing the 
Vatican Council that declared the Infallibility of the 
Pope, reaffirmed the canons and decrees of the Council 
of Trent, and individually "swore adhesion to them, 
kissing the Holy Gospels in solemn token thereof.'' 

This Council of Trent was the answer of Rome to the 
Reformation, and its canons and decrees, as also the 
Syllabus and Encyclicals of Pius IX. (see p. 73) are 
now of infallible authority. 



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